Trauma surgery

Trauma surgery is a surgical specialty that utilizes both operative and non-operative management to treat traumatic injuries, typically in an acute setting.

They may therefore sit for the American Board of Surgery (ABS) certifying examination in surgical critical care.

National surgical boards usually supervise European training programs; they also certify for subspecialization in trauma surgery.

The broad scope of their surgical critical care training enables trauma surgeons to address most injuries to the neck, chest, abdomen, and extremities.

Trauma surgeons must be familiar with a large variety of general surgical, thoracic, and vascular procedures and must be able to make complex decisions, often with little time and incomplete information.

This process starts as soon as the patient arrives in the emergency department and continues to the operating room, intensive care unit, and hospital floor.

In most American university hospitals and medical centers, a significant portion of the emergency general surgery calls are taken by trauma surgeons.

[citation needed] Dr. George E. Goodfellow is credited as the United States' first civilian trauma surgeon.

[8][9] Goodfellow treated a number of notorious outlaw cowboys in Tombstone, Arizona, during the 1880s,[10] including Curly Bill Brocius.

Goodfellow removed a .45-caliber bullet, washed out the cavity with hot water, folded the intestines back into position, stitched the wound closed with silk thread, and ordered the patient to take it to a hard bed for recovery.

He wrote about the operation: "I was entirely alone having no skilled assistant of any sort, therefore was compelled to depend for aid upon willing friends who were present—these consisting mostly of hard-handed miners just from their work on account of the fight.