General surgery | Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand | Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty

General surgery

General surgery

General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal organs - (i.e. intestines, including oesophagus, the stomach, the small bowel, the large bowel, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, as well as the thyroid gland, skin, breast and hernias.

General surgeons perform procedures such as laparoscopic surgery, colorectal surgery and breast surgery.

General surgeries provided

Laparoscopic surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery in which operations in the abdomen are performed through small incisions of about 0.5cm to 1.5cm.

Advantages to the patient include less pain due to smaller incisions and shorter recovery times.

This field of medicine deals with the disorders of the rectum, anus and colon.

General surgeons treat a wide variety of colon and rectal diseases, ranging from inflammatory bowel diseases (such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease) to bowel cancer, diverticulitis, gastrointestinal bleeding and hemorrhoids.

General surgeons perform most non-cosmetic breast surgery from lumpectomy to mastectomy, especially pertaining to the evaluation and diagnosis of breast cancer.