Department of
Surgery

General Surgery

Aims

  1. To become familiar with the recognition, natural history, and general and specific treatment of those adult general surgical conditions that one would expect to encounter in a general surgery practice in a community.
  2. To familiarize oneself with the pathophysiology of common general surgical conditions.

Educational Objectives

Clinical Skills

Given a patient with a general surgical disease, the clerk will be able to do the following to the satisfaction of his/her supervisor(s).

  • Take a relevant history.
  • Perform an acceptable physical exam concentrating on the relevant areas.
  • Arrive at an appropriate differential diagnosis.

Cognitive Knowledge

The clerk will be expected to demonstrate a fundamental knowledge and understanding of the following general areas and disease processes. The clerk’s knowledge base must be adequate to permit appropriate assessment, investigation, diagnosis, and treatment.

  1. Hernias-inguinal, umbilical, epigastric, ventral.
  2. Management of Gallbladder disease
  3. Management of thyroid and parathyroid disorders
  4. The approach to a patient with gastrointestinal bleeding
  5. Management and surgical options in gastroesophageal reflux disease and peptic ulcers
  6. The approach to a patient with inflammatory bowel disease
  7. The approach to a patient with pancreatitis
  8. Fluid and dietary management of the surgical patient Indications for and complications of central venous lines in children
  9. Anal fissures, perirectal absess and fissure-in-ano
  10. The "Acute Abdomen"-acute appendicitis, perforated viscus, acute gastroenteritis, bowel obstruction.