Key result
Acute care surgery integrates critical care and AI but faces surgeon burnout and global disparities.
Why the study?
Acute care surgery has evolved from a procedure-focused model to a comprehensive specialty, facing new innovations, systemic challenges, and substantial global disparities in implementation.
This narrative review highlights the evolution of acute care surgery into a comprehensive perioperative specialty and emphasizes the need to adopt technological advancements and address workforce sustainability.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports evolving acute care surgery models with AI/robotics; leaves open strategies to mitigate burnout and disparities.
Acute care surgery (ACS) is an integrated specialty encompassing trauma, emergency general surgery, and surgical critical care, aimed at delivering comprehensive, timely management of surgical emergencies. This narrative review examines the evolution of ACS from a procedure-focused model to a comprehensive perioperative care specialty. It analyzes significant innovations, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for sepsis prediction and complication risk stratification, the emerging role of robotic surgery, the incorporation of telemedicine, and the implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols. The review also identifies critical systemic challenges, including surgeon burnout, ethical dilemmas in end-of-life care, and chronic underfunding. Furthermore, it highlights substantial global disparities in the implementation of ACS models, with well-established systems in North America and fragmented or absent services in low-resource settings. This synthesis concludes that the future of ACS hinges on adopting technological advancements, addressing workforce sustainability, and developing policies to ensure equitable, high-quality emergency surgical care worldwide.
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Badero et al. (2026) conducted a review in Surgical emergencies and trauma. Acute Care Surgery (ACS) models was evaluated. Acute care surgery has evolved into a comprehensive specialty integrating critical care and technologies like AI and robotics, though it faces challenges with surgeon burnout and global disparities.
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