About the book

Trauma surgery is a surgical specialty that utilizes both operative and non-operative management to treat traumatic injuries, typically in an acute setting. Emergency surgical patients often have complex and challenging problems, which may include major traumatic injury, sepsis, shock and serious abdominal conditions. For patients who have serious acute surgical or traumatic conditions inefficiencies in the system of retrieval, triage, diagnostic investigation, access to the operating theatre, and appropriate post-operative care may lead to an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Emergency surgery includes general emergency surgery, vascular emergency surgery, thoracic emergency surgery but also urologic, cardiac, paediatric, musculoskeletal, gynaecological, transplant emergency surgery and all surgical specialties. Largely performed by surgeons specializing in emergency medicine, this surgery can be conducted for many reasons but occurs most often in urgent or critical cases in response to trauma, cardiac events, poison episodes, brain injuries, and pediatric medicine.

Mortality rates are high for emergency surgeries. The most advanced surgical techniques are used (open surgery and laparoscopic surgery, damage control surgery for polytrauma patient management, advanced multidisciplinary management of acute and non-acute surgical patients). The Unit prides itself on the collaboration between multidisciplinary teams that make use of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic resources. General surgeons are assisted by physicians from the traditional radiology, interventional radiology, angiography and anaesthesiologists-resuscitators, to allow for a timely diagnosis and optimal treatment of urgent and non-urgent pathologies.