General surgery can be performed on almost any area of the body. A general surgeon is a physician who performs surgery and provides preoperative, operative, and postoperative care to surgical patients. This surgeon can treat diseases, injuries or deformities by surgery or minimally invasive techniques, such as endoscopy, where a tiny scope is used to view internal organs or structures. The endoscope can be used during operating procedures, or before surgery, to diagnose, assess and treat problem areas.

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are breast disease, thyroid disorders, hernia, breast cancer, crohn's disease, cystic fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatitis, lymphoma, chronic renal failure, morbid obesity, adhesions, colorectal cancer, hirschsprung's disease, volvulus, thyroid cancer, kidney cancer, metastatic disease, toxic megacolon, and meckel's diverticulum.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including microsurgery, mastectomy, laser surgery, minimally invasive surgery, breast reconstruction, breast surgery, thyroid surgery, laparoscopic surgery, da vinci surgical system, bypass surgery, robotic surgery, resection, liver transplant, whipple procedure, kidney transplant, bariatric surgery, appendectomy, cholecystectomy, cryosurgery, and abdominal surgery.

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including endoscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (mri), x-ray, computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), electrocardiogram (ecg or ekg), biopsy, cardiac stress test, lower gi (barium enema), upper gi (barium swallow), and fecal occult bloodtest.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 19,827 practicing general surgeons. Broken out by state, general surgery doctor density in Alabama is 314, in Alaska is 51, in Arizona is 334, in Arkansas is 178, in California is 1,981, in Colorado is 281, in Connecticut is 291, in Delaware is 62, in District of Columbia is 93, in Florida is 1,095, in Georgia is 612, in Hawaii is 84, in Idaho is 89, in Illinois is 794, in Indiana is 450, in Iowa is 212, in Kansas is 184, in Kentucky is 321, in Louisiana is 321, in Maine is 108, in Maryland is 412, in Massachusetts is 845, in Michigan is 647, in Minnesota is 381, in Mississippi is 167, in Missouri is 415, in Montana is 70, in Nebraska is 122, in Nevada is 98, in New Hampshire is 127, in New Jersey is 578, in New Mexico is 112, in New York is 1,545, in North Carolina is 588, in North Dakota is 58, in Ohio is 775, in Oklahoma is 196, in Oregon is 246, in Pennsylvania is 938, in Rhode Island is 95, in South Carolina is 326, in South Dakota is 79, in Tennessee is 496, in Texas is 1,319, in Utah is 103, in Vermont is 61, in Virginia is 508, in Washington is 388, in West Virginia is 172, in Wisconsin is 395, and in Wyoming is 31.