General surgery, despite its name, is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal
organs, e.g. intestines including esophagus, stomach, colon, liver, gallbladder
and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland (depending on the availability
of head and neck surgery specialists) and hernias.
With the prevalent
trend for increasing sub-specialisation in today's medical practice, General
Surgery has somewhat lost some of its former glory and scope. Nonetheless, it
continues to be a competitive, rewarding and highly demanding specialty in its
own right. Until recently, all surgeons had to have gained fellowship in the College
of General Surgeons (or such equivalent) in order to progress into further
sub-specialty training. However, recently, the College of Surgeons has been divided
into separate sub-branches, whereby Fellowship in General Surgery is not
necessarily required, but may well be desired - depending on the country and centre
of practice, as well as the individual sub-specialty.
Certain
sub-specialties are still part of the General Surgical training program. That is,
General Surgeons may subspecialise into one or more of the following disciplines:
Breast
surgery, Trauma surgery, Colorectal surgery, Endocrine surgery,
Transplant surgery, and Vascular surgery. |
