Surgery in the Tropics

Surgeons working in tropical environments and global surgeons must have a broad skill base and should be familiar with a broad range of diseases, maintain a broad scope of practice, including providing care for impoverished patients impacted by non-communicable and infectious diseases, and injuries. This chapter aims to (1) to introduce readers to global surgery and (2) to serve as a reference for recognition and treatment of common surgical conditions practitioners will encounter in the Tropical context. To these ends, the first portion of this chapter will introduce global surgery generally and as a global imperative with particular emphasis on recent developments on the international stage. The remainder of the chapter will focus on surgical pathologies within the context of Tropical Medicine as defined in this book as “the zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn” and the areas just outside that zone.