Should Trauma Surgeons Perform Neurosurgery in Emergencies?

Case Series of Neurotrauma Managed by General Surgeon at Ladakh — The Highest Plateau State of India

“…Though a trauma surgeon after MCh trauma course is a step in the right direction, a doubt exists about the availability of such super specialist in resource sparse place. Instead, it has been advocated that the best and the only feasible means to overcome the gap is providing 6 month training to the motivated general surgeon from austere places at tertiary centres and training them to tackle the hidden epidemic of neurotrauma [19]. Another module in this regard came from Tanzania, a developing country like India, where 'teach forward programme' was started, rather than general surgeon going to tertiary centre, a trained neurosurgeon went and worked in the community of interest and trained local professional, who in turn trained others in the community [15].…”

“…Some authors stated that telemedicine in rural and suburban India has very little utility in emergency setup [24]. For using telecommunication to the fullest even in emergency set up is training and preparing the rural surgeon to tackle the emergency, providing them with protocol and referral support as described by neurosurgeon in literature [19]. Such practice is being successfully followed in developed countries like Norway [25].…”