General Principles -- Initial Assessment and Early Resuscitation -- The Operating Theater for Acute Care Surgery -- Anesthesia and Acute Care Surgery -- Fundamental Operative Approaches in Acute Care Surgery -- The Perioperative Management of the Acute Care Surgical Patient -- The Hemodynamically Labile Patient: Cardiovascular Adjuncts and Assist Devices -- Principles and Practice of Nutritional Support for Surgical Patients -- The Intensive Care Unit: The Next-Generation Operating Room -- Burns -- Electrical and Lightning Injuries -- Soft Tissue Infections -- The Open Abdomen: Management from Initial Laparotomy to Definitive Closure -- Acute Care Surgery and the Elderly -- Acute Care Surgery in the Rural Setting -- Prehospital Care in the Acute Setting -- Disaster and Mass Casualty Management -- Principles of Injury Prevention and Control -- Education: Surgical Simulation in Acute Care Surgery -- Organ-Based Approach -- Pharynx and Larynx -- Head and Neck: Pediatrics -- Esophagus -- Central Nervous System -- Chest Wall -- Lungs and Pleura -- Heart -- Thoracic Aorta -- Diaphragm -- Abdominal Wall -- Foregut -- Small Intestine -- Liver and Biliary Tract -- Pancreas -- Spleen -- Intraabdominal Vasculature -- Colon and Rectum -- Urogenital Tract -- Pelvis -- Lower Extremities -- Hand and Upper Extremities -- Peripheral Vasculature -- Administration, Ethics, and Law -- Understanding the Latest Changes in EMTALA: Our Country’s Emergency Care Safety Net -- Informed Surgical Consent -- Advance Directives -- The Nonviable Patient and Organ Procurement -- Ethical Dilemmas and the Law -- System and Curriculum Development -- Development of a Regional System for Surgical Emergencies (RSSE) -- Acute Care Surgery: A Proposed Curriculum -- Emergency General Surgery: The Vanderbilt Model -- The International Communities -- Acute Care Surgery: United Kingdom -- Acute Care Surgery: Australia -- Acute Care Surgery: Japan.

The practice of general and trauma surgery frequently involves a broad range of emergency situations. Surgeons must be familiar with diagnosis and operative management principles in the fast-paced environment of the emergency setting. Acute Care Surgery: Principles and Practice comprehensively presents the full spectrum of surgical emergencies, including trauma and non-traumatic acute surgical diseases of the abdominal, pelvic, and cardiothoracic organs as well as the extremities, skin and soft tissue, and head and neck. Management of surgical infections is also discussed. Edited by an internationally renowned trio of experts, Acute Care Surgery is the ideal reference text for surgical trainees as well as practicing surgeons. Authoritative, comprehensive, and user- friendly, the text features over 40 chapters complete with case studies as well as question and answer commentaries. Every chapter begins with a box highlighting the key points and current areas of controversy. In addition to clinically focused discussions on surgical emergencies in all the major organ systems, the editors include chapters on basic principles of initial assessment and early resuscitation, anesthesia and emergency surgery, the intensive care unit, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics in the emergency setting, and management of the hemodynamically labile patient. In addition, a timely section on ethics and legal issues discusses the challenges of providing care in the emergency setting with chapters on advanced directives, informed consents, and organ procurement. The text is augmented by more than 500 tables and illustrations. emergency surgery is destined to be the gold-standard reference for surgeons faced with split-second decision making in the acute setting.