[ST-6] Statement for the Advisory Council for General Surgery
to the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons
[by the American College of Surgeons]
The Advisory Council for General Surgery unanimously recognizes
and reaffirms that General Surgery is the basic core specialty
within the discipline of surgery. The general surgeon is a surgical
specialist engaged in the comprehensive care of surgical patients.
The future of General Surgery is dependent upon the maintenance
of comprehensive training standards and scope of practice.
The Advisory Council for General Surgery accepts and endorses
the definition of General Surgery as a specialty as articulated
by the American Board of Surgery and as described in the special
requirements for residency training in General Surgery by the
Residency Review Committee for Surgery.*
It is essential that the full scope of this definition be
retained in the actual clinical experience of the general surgery
trainee. An adequate number of general surgical procedures must
be maintained for comprehensive education and training programs
of general surgery residents.
1. General Surgery, as defined by the American Board
of Surgery and the Residency Review Committee for Surgery, emphasizes
the acquisition of knowledge in the basic sciences underlying
surgical practice and the development of clinical skills in the
diagnosis, preoperative, operative, and postoperative care of
patients with disease as outlined on the next page.
2. The Advisory Council for General Surgery supports
the previous action of the Board of Regents of the American College
of Surgeons in opposing the further fragmentation of Surgery,
and the Council opposes the issuing of additional certificates
of special or added qualifications.
3. Technologic advances continue to characterize the
modern practice of scientific medicine. Surgeons should continue
to direct the development of and the definition of the true merit
of technical innovations in many aspects of general surgical
care. Some current examples include percutaneous angioplasty,
fiberoptic endoscopy, intensive care technologies, and biliary
lithotripsy.
Surgeons should be involved in decisions to use limited interventions,
which should be performed only by individuals fully trained in
the procedure with continuing outcome-related quality control.
Patients are best cared for when the procedure is done by or
with the full and previously established cooperation of a surgical
specialist capable of definitive correction of the patient's
illness or likely complications.
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*As published in Humphreys JW Jr: General
surgery redefined in the era of specialization. Bull Am Coll
Surg, 69:4-6, 1984.
* * * * *
DEFINITION OF GENERAL SURGERY
American Board of Surgery
General Surgery includes:
1. A central core of knowledge embracing anatomy, physiology,
metabolism, immunology, nutrition, pathology, wound healing,
shock and resuscitation, intensive care, and neoplasia.
2. Specialized knowledge and skill relating to the
diagnosis, preoperative, operative, and postoperative management
in the following areas of primary responsibility:
- Alimentary tract.
- Abdomen and its contents.
- Breast, skin, and soft tissue.
- Head and neck.
- Vascular system, excluding the intracranial vessels, the
heart, and those vessels intrinsic and immediately adjacent thereto.
- Comprehensive management of trauma. The responsibility of
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.
Statements
menu
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Reprinted from Bulletin of the American College
of Surgeons
Vol. 74, Vol 6, Pages 6-7, June 1989
