Definition
Acute care surgery is a newly recognized surgical specialty in the USA that encompasses trauma surgery, surgical critical care, and emergency surgery [1].
Rationale
In the USA, trauma surgery has traditionally integrated surgical critical care to provide 24 h in hospital comprehensive patient management. To meet demands of the recent crisis in access to emergent surgical care [2], the discipline has been expanded to include emergency surgery; that is, broad-based general surgery to include urgent thoracic and vascular procedures. The fundamental goal is to provide emergent operative care for life or limb-threatening surgical problems within the first 24 h of hospitalization. Although considered a new specialty, in fact, this practice paradigm has existed in many urban safety-net hospitals in the USA serving as regional trauma centers [3]. However, the progressive fragmentation of general surgery, expanding knowledge and technical skills required, and limitations on...
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References
The Committee to Develop the Reorganized Specialty of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery (2005) Acute care surgery – trauma, critical care, and emergency surgery. J Trauma 58:614–616
Division of Advocacy and Health Policy (2006) A growing crisis in patient access to emergency surgical care. Bull Am Coll Surg 91:8–20
Ciesla DJ, Moore EE, Moore JB et al (2005) The academic trauma center is a model for the future trauma and acute care surgeon. J Trauma 58:657–662
The Committee on Acute Care Surgery American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (2007) The acute care surgical curriculum. J Trauma 62:553–556
Representatives of the Participating Organizations in Congress (2009) Acute care congress on the future of emergency surgical care in the United States. J Trauma 67:1–7
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Moore, E.E., Burlew, C.C. (2012). Acute Care Surgery. In: Vincent, JL., Hall, J.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Intensive Care Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00418-6_360
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00418-6_360
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00417-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-00418-6
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