Trauma Surgery

Trauma Surgeons are physicians who have completed the typical five year general surgery residency and usually continue with a one to two year fellowship leading to additional board certification in Surgical Critical Care. It is important to note that one does not receive board certification in general surgery and trauma surgery (trauma surgery is not an option), but after the fellowship would be eligible to sit for additional qualifications in Surgical Critical Care. Karim Brohi keeps a database of some of the available fellowships in trauma and or surgical critical care on his website (http://www.trauma.org), an excellent reference for those interested in trauma. This site also links to many other websites on the topic of trauma. For information on what is involved in a trauma fellowship, please reference the book published by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) entitled Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient. This book can be ordered off the web at http://www.facs.org in the publications section.

Trauma surgeons tend to work at night and are expected to make immediate, potentially life and death decisions while utterly exhausted. Some even have elective general surgery schedules after their on-call nights. I would suggest everyone interested in trauma read the following interviews, which include interviews with internationally known trauma surgeons such as Kenneth L. Mattox from Baylor and Norman McSwain from Tulane.

INTERVIEW #1:

Dr. Charles J. Yowler, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University and Director of the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio

INTERVIEW #2:

Norman McSwain, Jr., M.D., FACS, Professor of Surgery and Director of Trauma at Tulane University Medical Center

INTERVIEW #3:

Dr. Kennan J. Buechter, M.D., Professor, Chief of Surgery and Trauma Program Director, Medical Center of Louisiana

INTERVIEW #4:

Dr. D. Demetriades, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and Director of Trauma/Critical Care, LAC and USC Medical Center, USC University

INTERVIEW #5:

Dr. Kenneth L. Mattox, M.D., Professor and Vice Chairman of the Dept. of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine. Hospital

INTERVIEW #6:

Dr. John A. Morris, Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University and Director of Trauma at Vanderbilt

INTERVIEW #7:

Dr. Virginia Eddy, M.D., Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center