What Is The Difference Between Surgery and Internal Medicine?

In the outpatient clinic, there are often patients who come to the hospital and don't know which department they should see, and they can't tell the difference between internal medicine and surgery. Many people do not understand the difference between internal medicine and surgery. Many friends have asked me this question. Some people say that internal medicine looks at diseases inside the body, and surgery looks at diseases outside the body. Some people say that surgery is to use a knife to perform operations, while internal medicine is not to do surgery and just use medicine. In fact, these two statements are one-sided.

The name for "surgery" once comes from the Latin Chirurgia, which is a combination of the Greek cheri (hand) and ergon (work). Surgery at that time emphasized the use of hands (dressing change, surgery and manipulation) to treat injuries and illnesses to distinguish internal medicines that use drugs to treat diseases. The basic forms of surgical diseases are roughly divided into 7 categories

1. Trauma: damage to human tissues caused by violence or other injury-causing factors, such as rupture of internal organs, fractures, etc., usually requires surgery or other surgical treatments to repair tissues and restore functions.

2. Infection: pathogenic microorganisms invade the human body, causing damage and destruction of tissues and organs, necrosis and abscesses, and such infections are suitable for surgical treatment. For example, our common gangrenous appendicitis.

3. Tumor: The vast majority of tumors require surgical treatment. Surgery for malignant tumors can achieve radical cure, prolong survival, or relieve symptoms.

4. Deformities: congenital deformities, such as congenital heart disease; acquired deformities, such as scar contracture after burns.

5. Endocrine dysfunction: thyroid and parathyroid hyperfunction.

6. Parasitic diseases: biliary ascariasis.

7. Others: organ obstruction, such as intestinal obstruction; blood circulation disorders, such as varicose veins of the lower extremities; stone formation, such as cholelithiasis and urinary tract stones.

With the expansion of the scope of surgery. It is impossible for any surgeon to master all the knowledge and skills of surgery. Professional development has become inevitable. There are many kinds of surgical division methods, usually according to the system of the human body: orthopedics, urology, neurosurgery (brain surgery), vascular surgery; according to the location can be divided into: head and neck surgery, abdominal surgery; according to the operation method can be divided into: General surgery, microsurgery. The disciplines that originally belonged to surgery, such as obstetrics and gynecology, stomatology, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology, broke away from surgery with the development of breeding, and established their own specialties.

Internal medicine is separated from surgery due to the use of "non-surgical methods to treat diseases." Due to the needs of professional development, internal medicine is further divided into various specialties according to different systems, such as respiratory, cardiovascular, gastroenterology, nephrology, hematology, endocrinology and metabolic diseases, rheumatology and immunology; in addition, it also extends Infectious diseases, psychiatry and neurology (neurology). Internal medicine is a comprehensive discipline in medicine, covering a wide range of areas and strong integrity. It studies the etiology, diagnosis, and prevention of diseases in various systems and organs of the human body. It should be pointed out that in many cases, surgical diseases and medical diseases are relative. Because surgical diseases do not necessarily require surgery, and some medical diseases may also be treated surgically at a certain stage of development. Such as local infectious lesions, we often say that some mild appendicitis can be "kept" with antibiotics; and when gastroduodenal ulcers are complicated by perforation or hemorrhage, surgery is often required.