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 31,058 practicing general surgeons. Broken out by state, general surgery doctor density in Alabama is 451, in Alaska is 61, in Arizona is 570, in Arkansas is 265, in California is 3,102, in Colorado is 409, in Connecticut is 429, in Delaware is 94, in District of Columbia is 184, in Florida is 1,546, in Georgia is 880, in Hawaii is 115, in Idaho is 120, in Illinois is 1,248, in Indiana is 563, in Iowa is 342, in Kansas is 288, in Kentucky is 486, in Louisiana is 531, in Maine is 174, in Maryland is 687, in Massachusetts is 1,153, in Michigan is 1,091, in Minnesota is 661, in Mississippi is 244, in Missouri is 692, in Montana is 102, in Nebraska is 224, in Nevada is 166, in New Hampshire is 194, in New Jersey is 886, in New Mexico is 209, in New York is 2,248, in North Carolina is 914, in North Dakota is 93, in Ohio is 1,310, in Oklahoma is 329, in Oregon is 395, in Pennsylvania is 1,518, in Rhode Island is 141, in South Carolina is 464, in South Dakota is 110, in Tennessee is 689, in Texas is 1,975, in Utah is 170, in Vermont is 93, in Virginia is 694, in Washington is 587, in West Virginia is 243, in Wisconsin is 647, and in Wyoming is 50.