General surgery

General Surgeons

How to find a general surgeon

When choosing a surgeon, The Surgical Clinic in Tennessee wants to make sure that you understand the specialty and what the title of “general surgeon” means. The term “general surgeon” is a little misleading since in the medical field, the term represents a highly trained specialist–not a “generalist.” In fact, a general surgeon has a wide enough array of skills to treat many common and complex medical conditions.

Becoming a general surgeon

General surgeons must graduate from a four-year undergraduate college or university and then complete four years of Medical School to earn a Medical Degree (MD). After earning an MD from a Medical School, the Surgeon will be matched in a surgical residency. Surgical Residencies are highly competitive, supervised learning experiences in which a Resident will learn under the supervision of an attending physician(s).

During the Residency, the Supervising Physician(s) will gradually allow the Resident to do more autonomous work until the Resident is capable of doing that procedure without help. A physician will spend five years completing a General Surgery Residency. Following a Residency, Surgeons may elect to continue with specialized surgical training for procedures in other parts of the body. These Fellowships will add competencies in areas such as Vascular Surgery (an additional one to two years of study), Breast (an additional year), Minimally Invasive Surgery (an additional year).

COMPLEX HERNIA REPAIR surgery

20 years after having a simple hernia repair, David continued to have a larger, more complicated hernia repairs about every 3 years that continued to fail. He changed his lifestyle to be less active to just keep the symptoms at bay. After having multiple hernia repairs, each surgery becomes more complex and increase the chance of a recurrence.

David decided to see one of our general surgeons in Nashville, Dr. Goers, who was able to perform a complex hernia repair that has given him to ability to get back to his normal lifestyle without pain on a daily basis.