What is General Surgery?
General Surgery in Iran Health is a surgical specialty that focuses on alimentary canal and abdominal contents including the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland. General surgeons also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft tissue, trauma, peripheral artery disease and hernias and perform endoscopic as such as gastroscopy, colonoscopy and laparoscopic procedures.
General Surgeon
A general surgeon performs most of the common surgery operations you might need at some point in your lifetime. You might see a general surgeon if you have gallstones or appendicitis, or if you need a hernia or prolapse repaired.
A general surgeon has specialized knowledge and experience related to the diagnosis, preoperative, operative, and postoperative management, including the management of complications, in nine primary components of surgery, all of which are essential to the education of a broadly based surgeon for General Surgery in Iran Health:
- Alimentary tract
- Abdomen and its contents
- Breast, skin, and soft tissue
- Head and neck, including trauma, vascular, endocrine, congenital and oncologic disorders—particularly tumors of the skin, salivary glands, thyroid, parathyroid, and the oral cavity
- Vascular system, excluding the intracranial vessels and heart
- Endocrine system, including thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, and endocrine pancreas
- Surgical oncology, including coordinated multimodality management of the cancer patient by screening, surveillance, surgical adjunctive therapy, rehabilitation, and follow-up
- Comprehensive management of trauma, including musculoskeletal, hand, and head injuries—the responsibility for all phases of care of the injured patient is an essential component of general surgery
- Complete care of critically ill patients with underlying surgical conditions, in the emergency room, intensive care unit, and trauma/burn units
General Surgery in Iran Health
All general surgeons are trained in emergency surgery. Bleeding, infections, bowel obstructions and organ perforations are the main problems they deal with. Cholecystectomy, the surgical removal of the gallbladder, is one of the most common surgical procedures done worldwide. This is most often done electively, but the gallbladder can become acutely inflamed and require an emergency operation. Infections and rupture of the appendix and small bowel obstructions are other common emergencies.
Laparoscopic surgery as a General surgery in Iran Health
This is a relatively new specialty dealing with minimal access techniques using cameras and small instruments inserted through 3- to 15-mm incisions. Robotic surgery is now evolving from this concept (see below). Gallbladders, appendices, and colons can all be removed with this technique. Hernias are also able to be repaired laparoscopically. Bariatric surgery can be performed laparoscopically and there a benefits of doing so to reduce wound complications in obese patients. General surgeons that are trained today are expected to be proficient in laparoscopic procedures.
Colorectal surgery
General surgeons treat a wide variety of major and minor colon and rectal diseases including inflammatory bowel diseases (such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease), diverticulitis, colon and rectal cancer, gastrointestinal bleeding and hemorrhoids.
General surgery in Iran Health : Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery
General surgeons can specialise in Upper Gastro-intestinal (or foregut) surgery, which includes the surgical treatment of diseases of the stomach and oesophagus, liver, pancreas and gallbladder.
In a General Surgery in Iran Health, Upper GI surgeons can subspecialise further as benign surgeons, dealing with hiatus hernias and gallbladder diseases, bariatric surgeons, providing surgical care for weight management and metabolic diseases, or oesophago-gastric surgeons, dealing with complex problems related to the upper gastrointestinal tract (the foregut), including cancer. Surgical care of complex liver and pancreatic problems (including liver cancer and pancreatic cancer) is undertaken by Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery sub-specialists.
Breast surgery
General surgeons perform a majority of all non-cosmetic breast surgery from lumpectomy to mastectomy, especially pertaining to the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
Vascular surgery
General surgeons at Iran Health can perform vascular surgery if they receive special training and certification in vascular surgery. Otherwise, these procedures are typically performed by vascular surgery specialists. However, general surgeons are capable of treating minor vascular disorders in a General Surgery in Iran Health.
Endocrine surgery
As a General surgery in Iran Health, General surgeons are trained to remove all or part of the thyroid and parathyroid glands in the neck and the adrenal glands just above each kidney in the abdomen. In many communities, they are the only surgeon trained to do this. In communities that have a number of subspecialists, other subspecialty surgeons may assume responsibility for these procedures.
Transplant surgery as a General Surgery in Iran Health
Responsible for all aspects of pre-operative, operative, and post-operative care of abdominal organ transplant patients. Transplanted organs include liver, kidney, pancreas, and more rarely small bowel.
Surgical oncology
Surgical oncologist refers to a general surgical oncologist (a specialty of a general surgeon), but thoracic surgical oncologists, gynecologist and so forth can all be considered surgeons who specialize in treating cancer patients. The importance of training surgeons who sub-specialize in cancer surgery lies in evidence, supported by a number of clinical trials, that outcomes in surgical cancer care as a General Surgery in Iran Health are positively associated to surgeon volume (i.e., the more cancer cases a surgeon treats, the more proficient he or she becomes, and his or her patients experience improved survival rates as a result).
This is another controversial point, but it is generally accepted, even as common sense, that a surgeon who performs a given operation more often, will achieve superior results when compared with a surgeon who rarely performs the same procedure in General Surgery in Iran Health. This is particularly true of complex cancer resections such as pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer, and gastrectomy with extended (D2) lymphadenectomy for gastric cancer. Surgical oncology is generally a 2-year fellowship following completion of a general surgery residency (5–7 years).
Cardiothoracic surgery
Most cardiothoracic surgeons in the U.S. (D.O. or M.D.) first complete a general surgery residency (typically 5–7 years), followed by a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship (typically 2–3 years). However, new programmes are currently offering cardiothoracic surgery as a residency (6–8 years).Pediatric surgery
Pediatric surgery is a subspecialty of general surgery. Pediatric surgeons do surgery on patients under age 18. Pediatric surgery is 5–7 years of residency and a 2-3 year fellowship.
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