Current status and future options for trauma and emergency surgery in Europe.

Currently, there is great variation in the way trauma and non-trauma emergency surgery is organized in Europe. Trauma system development based on orthopedic trauma surgery seems to be more advanced in the central European countries and less developed in Scandinavia, The Baltic States, United Kingdom and the Mediterranean countries. Specific training for trauma surgery correlates with higher level of trauma system development. Multiple common features in the management of a surgical emergency, whether caused by injury or acute disease process, would favor the integration of these two disciplines into a single organizational and educational entity based on regionalization of emergency surgical services and general surgery-based education aiming for multidisciplinary team leadership and decision making skills, and surgical competence in acute life- and limb-saving surgery.