The Role and Effort of the Gastroenterological Surgeon in Abdominal Trauma at a Provincial Emergency Center

Abstract

Concomitantly with the decrease of traffic accident in Japan, the incidence of abdominal trauma surgery has also decreased. In this chapter we introduce the system of acute care surgery (ACS) for patients with abdominal trauma in the urban and provincial areas in Japan. Specialized staff who were sent from each department such as physician, general surgery, neurological surgery, orthopaedic surgery and plastic surgery worked in the emergency center at the general hospital in urban areas. However general surgeons or gastroenterological surgeons performed acute care surgery (ACS) and abdominal trauma surgery at general hospitals in provincial areas. Meetings about acute care surgery and trauma in provincial hospitals play an important role in the mutual understanding among medical staff in the emergency, operation room. Training systems such as Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM), the Trauma Exposure Course (TEC), and the Definitive Surgical Trauma Care (DSTC) course will become more important in developing the skills of young surgeons in trauma surgery or ACS.