General surgery 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.
An endoscope is an inspection instrument composed of image sensor, optical lens, light source and mechanical device, which is used to look deep into the body by way of openings such as the mouth or anus. A typical endoscope applies several modern technologies including optics, ergonomics, precision mechanics, electronics, and software engineering. With an endoscope, it is possible to observe lesions that cannot be detected by X-ray, making it useful in medical diagnosis. Endoscopes use tubes which are only a few millimeters thick to transfer illumination in one direction and high-resolution images in real time in the other direction, resulting in minimally invasive surgeries. It is used to examine the internal organs like the throat or esophagus. Specialized instruments are named after their target organ. Examples include the cystoscope (bladder), nephroscope (kidney), bronchoscope (bronchus), arthroscope (joints) and colonoscope (colon), and laparoscope. They can be used to examine visually and diagnose, or assist in surgery such as an arthroscopy.
A Nissen fundoplication, or laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication when performed via laparoscopic surgery, is a surgical procedure to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and hiatal hernia. In GERD, it is usually performed when medical therapy has failed; but, with a Type II (paraesophageal) hiatus hernia, it is the first-line procedure. The Nissen fundoplication is total (360°), but partial fundoplications known as Thal, Belsey, Dor, Lind, and Toupet fundoplications are alternative procedures with somewhat different indications and outcomes.
Membership of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (MRCS) is a postgraduate diploma for surgeons in the UK and Ireland. Obtaining this qualification allows a doctor to become a member of one of the four surgical colleges in the UK and Ireland, namely the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The examination, currently organised on an intercollegiate basis, is required to enter higher surgical training in one of the Royal colleges. Thus today's MRCS has replaced the former MRCS(Eng), MRCS(Ed), MRCS(Glas), and MRCS(I).
A pancreaticoduodenectomy, also known as a Whipple procedure, is a major surgical operation most often performed to remove cancerous tumours from the head of the pancreas. It is also used for the treatment of pancreatic or duodenal trauma, or chronic pancreatitis. Due to the shared blood supply of organs in the proximal gastrointestinal system, surgical removal of the head of the pancreas also necessitates removal of the duodenum, proximal jejunum, gallbladder, and, occasionally, part of the stomach.
Digestive system surgery, or gastrointestinal surgery, can be divided into upper GI surgery and lower GI surgery.
In general surgery, a Roux-en-Y anastomosis, or Roux-en-Y, is an end-to-side surgical anastomosis of bowel used to reconstruct the gastrointestinal tract. Typically, it is between stomach and small bowel that is distal from the cut end.
The Lister Medal is an award presented by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in recognition of contributions to surgical science. It is named after the English surgeon Joseph Lister (1827–1912), whose work on antiseptics established the basis of modern sterile surgery.
Therapeutic endoscopy is the medical term for an endoscopic procedure during which treatment is carried out via the endoscope. This contrasts with diagnostic endoscopy, where the aim of the procedure is purely to visualize a part of the gastrointestinal, respiratory or urinary tract in order to aid diagnosis. In practice, a procedure which starts as a diagnostic endoscopy may become a therapeutic endoscopy depending on the findings, such as in cases of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, or the finding of polyps during colonoscopy.
Single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) is an advanced, minimally invasive (keyhole) procedure in which the surgeon operates almost exclusively through a single entry point, typically the patient's umbilicus (navel). Special articulating instruments and access ports eliminate the need to place trochars externally for triangulation, thus allowing the creation of a small, solitary portal of entry into the abdomen.
Lubomyr Kuzmak was a pioneer within the bariatric surgical community inventing the adjustable silicone band.
Dr. David Geller is the Richard L. Simmons Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and co-director of the UPMC Liver Cancer Center. As a hepatobiliary Surgical Oncologist, his clinical interests center on the evaluation and management of patients with liver cancer. He has pioneered laparoscopic liver resections, and has performed more than 300 of these cases. Most of these patients are discharged home on the second post-operative day with four to five band-aid-sized incisions. He also specializes in performing laparoscopic radiofrequency ablations of liver tumors. Dr. Geller is a member of many professional and scientific societies including the American Surgical Association, Society of Surgical Oncology, Society of University Surgeons, and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.
The Sugiura procedure is a surgical technique that involves the removal and transection of the blood vessels that supply the upper portion of the stomach and the esophagus. The procedure also involves a splenectomy. The operation was originally developed to treat bleeding esophageal varices that were untreatable by other conventional methods. It was originally developed as a two-step operation, but has been modified numerous times by many surgeons since its original creation.
Raghu Ram Pillarisetti is an Indian surgeon, and the Founder and Director of KIMS-Ushalakshmi Center for Breast Diseases at KIMS Hospitals. Pillarisetti is the founder of Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, and Pink Connexion, a quarterly newsletter about breast healthcare.
I. Michael Leitman is an American surgeon and medical educator. He is Professor of Surgery and Medical Education and Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He previously held the position of Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City.
Sir John Bruce, was a Scottish surgeon who was Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edinburgh and President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Ian Aird was a Scottish surgeon who became Professor of Surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. There he built up a large and productive research department which made particular contributions in cardiac surgery, renal transplantation and the association of blood groups with stomach cancer. He came to national and international prominence in 1953 when he led the teams which performed an operation to separate conjoined twins. His book A Companion in Surgical Studies was among the best selling surgical textbooks of its day. He died suddenly in 1962 at the age of 57.
Steven D. Wexner is an American surgeon and physician. He is Director of the Ellen Leifer Shulman and Steven Shulman Digestive Disease Center at Cleveland Clinic Florida. Wexner has received numerous regional, national, and international research awards. Through his multiple academic appointments, Wexner personally trains 15-20 surgeons each year, and he educates thousands more around the world through conferences and lectures. He is a resource for his colleagues from around the world for referral of patients with challenging or complex problems. In 2020, he was elected vice-chair of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons for a one-year term. Since 1990. he has served as Symposium Director of the Cleveland Clinic Annual International Colorectal Disease Symposium. The Symposium was held in Fort Lauderdale or Boca Raton every year from 1990 to 2019. Since 2020, the Symposium has expanded to include host locations outside of the US with interruptions during the pandemic years of 2021–2022.
Andrew Logan, FRCS, FRCSEd was a British cardiothoracic surgeon. For most of his career he worked in Edinburgh where he established the specialty of cardio-thoracic surgery. He devised a mitral valve dilator to treat mitral stenosis and this technique, modified by Oswald Tubbs and by Russell Brock, became widely used to treat this condition. He assisted at the first pneumonectomy in the UK and performed the first lung transplant in the UK.
Edward Eaton Mason was an American surgeon, professor, and medical researcher who specialized in obesity surgery. He is known for developing restrictive gastric surgery for morbidly obese patients. Mason introduced the first gastric bypass surgery in 1966 and was the inventor of the first vertical banded gastroplasty surgery in 1980.
