Achievements, present-day problems, and some solutions for trauma care, surgical critical care, and surgical...

Trauma care represents a serious challenge to general surgery. Forces favoring fragmentation of surgery will, if left unchecked, act to the detriment of the injured patient. These forces will increase in the future. It is the obligation of the surgeon to ensure that further specialization is linked to and does not fragment the knowledge base of general surgery. In turn, this obligation needs to be acknowledged in surgeons' leadership groups, in every trauma center, and in each surgical education program. Acknowledgement preserves the best trauma care for injured patients, while at the same time protecting the general surgeon as the specialist most suited to provide such care.