This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

William G. Rainer, Jr, MD
Cortez, Colo

Arch Surg. 2000;135:124.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

What is it that makes rural surgery different from surgery practiced in an urban or suburban setting? Having spent the past 10 years practicing general surgery in an isolated community of 10,000 people and serving an area of more than 5000 square miles, I have gained a few insights into this subspecialty that must be defined on the basis of geography, smaller populations, limited technological resources, and limited contact with other specialists. Numerous combinations of these factors create a broad variation within the field itself.

The differences involve the actual practice of surgery and the lifestyle of a smaller community; often these 2 are densely intertwined. In general, the variety of surgical cases performed is considerably larger than in the usual urban practice. Responsibility is often heavier; this includes areas of office and/or practice management, hospital affairs, and civic involvement. There is a heightened degree . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?