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. Indiana has 449 practicing general surgeons. Broken out by city, general surgery doctor density in Anderson is 7, in Angola is 2, in Auburn is 4, in Avon is 12, in Batesville is 3, in Bedford is 5, in Beech Grove is 2, in Bloomington is 7, in Bluffton is 1, in Brazil is 1, in Bremen is 1, in Brookville is 1, in Carmel is 30, in Chesterton is 1, in Clarksville is 4, in Clinton is 2, in Columbia City is 4, in Columbus is 9, in Connersville is 6, in Corydon is 1, in Crawfordsville is 1, in Crown Point is 5, in Danville is 6, in Decatur is 2, in Dyer is 3, in East Chicago is 1, in Elkhart is 6, in Elwood is 3, in Evansville is 14, in Fishers is 3, in Fort Wayne is 36, in Frankfort is 3, in Franklin is 4, in Gary is 4, in Georgetown is 1, in Goshen is 9, in Greencastle is 2, in Greenfield is 3, in Greensburg is 3, in Greenwood is 7, in Griffith is 2, in Hammond is 1, in Highland is 2, in Hobart is 4, in Huntingburg is 1, in Huntington is 2, in Jasper is 2, in Jeffersonville is 5, in Kendallville is 2, in Knox is 1, in Kokomo is 8, in La Porte is 5, in Lafayette is 9, in Lagrange is 2, in Lawrenceburg is 4, in Lebanon is 5, in Linton is 2, in Logansport is 4, in Madison is 3, in Marion is 6, in Martinsville is 3, in Merrillville is 18, in Michigan City is 5, in Mishawaka is 8, in Mitchell is 1, in Monticello is 1, in Mooresville is 9, in Muncie is 11, in Munster is 18, in New Albany is 10, in New Castle is 3, in Newburgh is 3, in Noblesville is 10, in North Vernon is 2, in Osgood is 1, in Peru is 3, in Plainfield is 1, in Plymouth is 5, in Portage is 4, in Portland is 3, in Princeton is 3, in Richmond is 6, in Rochester is 2, in Salem is 1, in Schererville is 1, in Scottsburg is 4, in Seymour is 4, in Shelbyville is 3, in South Bend is 9, in Sullivan is 3, in Terre Haute is 12, in Tipton is 2, in Topeka is 1, in Union City is 1, in Valparaiso is 8, in Vincennes is 4, in Wabash is 2, in Warsaw is 4, in Washington is 1, and in Winamac is 3.

Indiana’s population is 6,271,973, and most of the state’s population is located in the north, near the Lake Michigan shoreline, and is part of the greater metro Chicago area. Indiana became a state in 1816, and boasts many historical sites and covered bridges, numerous state parks and forests, hunting and fishing, and a variety of golf courses. Centrally located Indianapolis is home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hosting the world-famous 500-mile auto race every year. This capital and largest city of Indiana also hosts a Civil War museum, a planetarium, and the Indiana Historical Society, among many other attractions.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Indiana has a population of 6,271,973. Of this population, 1,566,280 are under the age of 18 and 774,303 are at or above the age of 65.