Trauma and Acute Care Surgery – What We Offer
The scope of practice of traditional “trauma” divisions has evolved at academic tertiary care medical centers in the Unites States. Following national standards, all trauma surgeons at the Brody School of Medicine are board-certified by the American Board of Surgery in Surgical Critical Care. In addition, the trauma surgeons at East Carolina University have specialized training in trauma and emergency general surgery. Accordingly, patients served by the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (TACS) include the three pillars of what has expanded from “trauma surgery” to the new designation “Acute Care Surgery”. These three pillars include
- Trauma
- Surgical Critical Care
- Emergency General Surgery.
Surgeons in the TACS Division staff the Level I Trauma Center at ECU Health Medical Center (EHMC) and therefore provide care to all injured patients transported to EHMC. As board-certified “intensivists” (doctors with specialized training and board-certification in Surgical Critical Care), the TACS division also cares for all patients admitted to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at EHMC, including essentially any surgical patient that is critically ill. Finally, the TACS surgeons provide the majority of the “emergency general surgery” at EHMC, consisting of any patient that requires emergency surgery or consultation from the emergency department or referred from other hospitals in eastern North Carolina.
Finally, the TACS division also provides basic outpatient general surgery care. This includes:
- Basic hernia surgery
- Complex abdominal wall hernia surgery
- Gallbladder surgery
- Skin and soft tissue masses such as sebaceous cysts and lipomas
- Diverticulitis
In summary, the members of the Division of Trauma and Acute treat the entire scope of Acute Care Surgery, including trauma, surgical critical illness, and emergency surgery. In these roles, we are proud and honored to serve the citizens of eastern North Carolina.