Digestive system surgery, or gastrointestinal surgery, can be divided into upper GI surgery and lower GI surgery.

Subtypes

Upper gastrointestinal

Upper gastrointestinal surgery, often referred to as upper GI surgery, refers to a practise of surgery that focuses on the upper parts of the gastrointestinal tract. There are many operations relevant to the upper gastrointestinal tract that are best done only by those who keep constant practise, owing to their complexity. Consequently, a

general surgeon General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on alimentary canal and abdominal contents including the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and bile ducts, and often the thyroid g ...

may specialise in 'upper GI' by attempting to maintain currency in those skills. Upper GI surgeons would have an interest in, and may exclusively perform, the following operations: *

Pancreaticoduodenectomy A pancreaticoduodenectomy, also known as a Whipple procedure, is a major surgical operation most often performed to remove cancerous tumours from the head of the pancreas. It is also used for the treatment of pancreatic or duodenal trauma, or ch ...

Esophagectomy Esophagectomy or oesophagectomy is the surgical removal of all or parts of the esophagus. Medical uses The principal objective is to remove the esophagus, a part of the gastrointestinal tract. This procedure is usually done for patients with esoph ...

* Liver resection

Lower gastrointestinal

Lower gastrointestinal surgery includes

colorectal surgery Colorectal surgery is a field in medicine dealing with disorders of the rectum, anus, and colon. The field is also known as proctology, but this term is now used infrequently within medicine and is most often employed to identify practices relati ...

as well as surgery of the small intestine. Academically, it refers to a sub-specialisation of medical practise whereby a

focuses on the lower gastrointestinal tract. In the U.S., a student wanting to specialize and practice in adult lower GI surgery would generally have to go through four years of undergraduate college pre-medical education and get a bachelor's degree, then finish the four years of medical school, then finish a typically five-year-long residency in general surgery, and then perform a subsequent one-year-long (minimum) residency in surgery of the small intestine or large intestine (the colon- specifically, the

cecum The cecum or caecum is a pouch within the peritoneum that is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is typically located on the right side of the body (the same side of the body as the appendix, to which it is joined). The wo ...

, the

vermiform appendix The appendix (or vermiform appendix; also cecal r caecalappendix; vermix; or vermiform process) is a finger-like, blind-ended tube connected to the cecum, from which it develops in the embryo. The cecum is a pouch-like structure of the large ...

, the ascending colon, the

transverse colon In human anatomy, the transverse colon is the longest and most movable part of the colon. Anatomical position It crosses the abdomen from the ascending colon at the right colic flexure (hepatic flexure) with a downward convexity to the descend ...

, the hepatic flexure and the

splenic flexure In the anatomy of the human digestive tract, there are two colic flexures, or curvatures in the transverse colon. The right colic flexure is also known as the hepatic flexure, and the left colic flexure is also known as the splenic flexure. Note ...

, the descending colon, and the sigmoid colon; and also the rectum and the anus). A fellowship (in surgery of the small intestine or of the large bowel, or in pediatric/neonatal lower GI surgery, or in surgery of congenital abnormalities or rare disorders of the lower GI tract, or in emergency/trauma surgery or in cancer surgery of the area), would add on approximately one to three more years. A lower GI surgeon might specialise in the following operations: *

Colectomy Colectomy ('' col-'' + '' -ectomy'') is bowel resection of the large bowel ( colon). It consists of the surgical removal of any extent of the colon, usually segmental resection (partial colectomy). In extreme cases where the entire large intest ...

* Low (anterior) (LAR) or ultra-low (anterior) resections (ULAR) for rectal cancer, etc. * Pelvic exenteration for advanced or recurrent cancer; usually performed in conjunction with other surgeons (e.g., urologists, obstetricians and gynecologists)

References

General surgery {{Surgery-stub