Current Surgical Therapy

Surgical Critical Care

COVID-19 and Health Care Delivery in a Pandemic Michael S. Burnim, MD Brian T. Garibaldi, MD BACKGROUND Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019. Within a matter of months, it caused the…

Preoperative and Postoperative Care

Eras Protocols for General Surgery Omaira Azizad, MD Girish P. Joshi, MBBS, MD INTRODUCTION Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathways, introduced more than 25 years ago, represent a paradigm shift in perioperative care that involves integration of evidence-based, multimodal, multidisciplinary interventions that…

Trauma and Emergency Care

Initial Assessment and Resuscitation of the Trauma Patient Jessie Ho, MD Hasan B. Alam, MD INTRODUCTION According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in Americans under the age of 45 years,…

Vascular Surgery

Open Repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Erin E. McIntosh, MD Richard P. Cambria, MD Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) affects 15% of men over age 65 and accounts for up to 15,000 deaths annually in the United States. Average yearly growth is about…

Chest Wall, Mediastinum, and Trachea

Management of Spontaneous and Secondary Pneumothorax Cameron D. Wright, MD PNEUMOTHORAX Spontaneous pneumothorax is described as a pneumothorax that occurs in the absence of trauma or significant lung disease. Secondary pneumothorax occurs in the setting of significant underlying lung disease, which…

Skin and Soft Tissue

Nonmelanoma Skin Cancers Nicholas Calotta, MD Paul N. Manson, MD Anthony Tufaro, MD, DDS Common nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) include basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The common forms of skin cancer arise, respectively, from the upper layers (epidermis) of…

Endocrine Glands

Adrenal Incidentaloma Whitney Sutton, MD, MHS Shkala Karzai, MD Aarti Mathur, MD, PhD An adrenal incidentaloma is defined as an adrenal mass identified on imaging performed for an indication other than suspected adrenal disease. With increasing utilization of cross-sectional imaging over the past…

Breast

Benign Breast Disease Halley Vora, MD Tawakalitu O. Oseni, MD GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Most women will experience a benign breast concern in their lifetime. These patients are often referred to general surgeons for evaluation and management. Evaluation of any breast complaint begins with…

Hernia

Management of Inguinal Hernia James E. Wiseman, MD, MBA Gina L. Adrales, MD, MPH More than 20 million inguinal hernia repairs are performed every year around the globe, placing this operation among the most common general surgical procedures ( ). Although the…

Spleen

Splenectomy for Hematologic Disorders Adam S. Weltz,, MD Adrian E. Park,, MD INTRODUCTION Splenectomy may be indicated in a wide variety of hematologic diseases that lead to hypersplenism. It may also be performed more generally to relieve the mass effect and symptoms…