General Surgery

General Surgery

Dr Le Page trained in General Surgery with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and completed this in 2011. The training encompassed a wide scope of surgery, from colorectal surgery to breast and thyroid surgery, thoracic and neuro surgery, trauma and emergency surgery, hepatobiliary and also in his subspeciality area of Oesophago-gastric surgery. General Surgery is a broad term and often includes hernia and gallbladder surgery along with other common surgical conditions. Dr Le Page still practices in General Surgery. These conditions include:

Skin lumps and lesions

It is common for people to see their GP for abnormalities on their skin or lumps underneath. Possible common causes for these include skin cancer and lipoma. These lesions are often able to be removed by local anaesthetic as a minor procedure by Dr Le Page at the hospital, unless they are too large or complex (in which case a general anaesthetic is sometimes required).

Pilonidal sinus

This is where an ingrown hair causes a pit to form in the natal cleft (between your buttock cheeks). This can cause a minor pain or lead to an acute infection with abscess formation. If the latter occurs a surgical drainage of the pus is required. When the sinus (pit) remains problematic this is surgically removed under general anaesthetic in the hospital. Sometimes a skin flap reconstruction is required. More recently, techniques have been developed to pass a very fine telescope into the pit to allow removal of the hair/inflammatory debris and allow complete healing to occur.

Haemorrhoids

These are common and can cause problems for people if they bleed, protrude from the anus or cause a bothersome itch. If present, treating constipation by increasing fluid and fibre consumption is an important first step. Sometimes they can develop a clot/thrombus in them which causes excruciating pain and may need attendance to the emergency department. If small haemorrhoids are causing problems these can be addressed by a minor procedure which puts rubber bands on them (inside the anus to avoid pain) to ablate them. This may need to be repeated. Less commonly, an operation to remove may be necessary.

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