Everyone needs to see a primary care physician at least once a year. However, many people also require the skills of a general surgeon. General surgeons are different from primary care physicians. General surgeons specialize in caring for people in the operating room and postoperative period. During training, a general surgeon will receive valuable guidance and experience across a breadth of various operations throughout the body. To quote Dr. Dupont from Louisiana State University “A general surgeon operates on the skin and its contents.” General surgeons have a diverse training. However, most general surgeons at this point in time operate primarily on the abdomen and soft tissue of the body. Most general surgeons will defer things like brain surgery to neurosurgeons and bone surgery to orthopedic surgeons.

After completing college, all medical doctors complete medical school. This is the next step to becoming a general surgeon. Medical school provides instruction on numerous subjects related to medicine and the care of patients including anatomy, physiology, pathology, biochemistry and statistics. Students also learn how to talk to patients, essentials of physical examination, and treatment of disease. The first two years are typically spent learning basic science. The last two years are spent in core rotations following supervising physicians and seeing patients. Medical students typically complete a general surgery rotation in their third year of medical school. If a medical student decides to pursue a career as a general surgeon, he or she will then complete a residency in general surgery that lasts at least five years. After residency, some general surgeons complete fellowships in surgical specialties, such as vascular surgery.

Like most fields of medicine, general surgery has seen a remarkable innovation in the last ten years. Biotechnology and biomedical engineering companies continue to push the boundaries of science to create products that improve the outcomes of surgical procedures and can treat a greater variety of patients. Furthermore, many procedures can be performed using minimally invasive techniques resulting in shorter recovery times for patients with decreased pain. These procedures are also usually more cosmetically pleasing and often patients can go home the same day.

Most towns have access to a general surgeon. Almost every hospital has at least one general surgeon who is a surgical specialist to care for the community. When patients are looking for a physician to perform a specific general surgery procedure, it is essential that they contact a board-certified general surgeon. This is a surgeon has completed a general surgery residency and passed their challenging written and oral board exams. This is certainly true in Bradenton and Manatee County, FL where Florida Surgical Clinic is led by a highly-trained double board-certified general and vascular surgeon named Dr. Jenna Kazil. Dr. Kazil not only performs general surgical procedures but vascular surgery procedures as well. Patients looking for the best surgical specialist should visit the Florida Surgical Clinic to discuss the wide variety of operations their surgeons are trained to perform. The Florida Surgical Clinic and its amazing surgical specialist serves the West coast of Florida population mainly in Manatee, Sarasota, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.