Acute Care Surgery

Acute Care Surgery at UVM Health

When the unexpected happens, you need a team you can rely on. Experienced trauma and emergency surgeons at University of Vermont Health are available 24/7 to provide high-level surgical care for any critical situation.

We’re home to Vermont’s only Level 1 Trauma Center. Our specialists have the proven skill and expertise to meet your needs in any trauma or emergency situation requiring surgery. Whether you experience a sudden complex health condition or a traumatic injury, our team stands ready to treat you with care and compassion.

A surgeon sets up overhead lighting to prepare for a surgery.

Why Choose UVM Health?

As one of the leading acute care surgery programs in the region, we offer:

Highly trained providers: Our emergency and trauma surgeons are board-certified in both general surgery and surgical critical care. You have round-the-clock access to advanced care for acute injuries and conditions requiring surgery.
Caring approach: We understand that we are meeting you under extremely stressful circumstances. We work quickly to establish trust with you and your loved ones so you can feel confident in our surgical expertise and our plan for your care.
Collaborative treatment: No matter where you’re located in Vermont or northern New York, you benefit from our acute care surgery team’s expertise. They combine their skill with shared imaging and real-time health information to quickly determine the best treatment plan.

What Is Acute Care Surgery?

Acute care surgery is surgical care that is time sensitive. The expertise of our specialists is always available to people facing accidents and emergencies.

Level 1 Trauma Center

UVM Health Trauma Center in Burlington is designated as a Level 1 trauma center, the highest designation possible. We achieved this recognition by meeting or exceeding strict national standards in providing the highest level of specialty care to trauma patients.

As a Level 1 trauma center, we are able to offer complete care for every type of injury and all aspects of acute care, including:

Immediate surgical care for emergencies and traumatic injuries
Critical care for adults and children
Postoperative rehabilitation

Our Trauma Center team works closely with physicians in our partner hospitals to ensure that people throughout Vermont and northern New York have 24/7 access to advanced care. When necessary, we arrange for transport via helicopter to the Trauma Center for specialized treatment.

Emergency Surgery

Our experts perform emergency surgery when a health condition causes or threatens to cause a significant injury. We treat conditions that affect your:

Breathing
Limbs
Muscles
Organs in your belly (abdomen)
Soft tissues

Health conditions that need emergency care may include sudden abdominal health conditions such as appendicitis or bowel obstructions. You may also need the expertise of our emergency surgeons if you have other health conditions that could cause complications during surgery.

Trauma Surgery

Our acute care surgeons conduct a thorough evaluation when you have injuries or health conditions that result from a physical incident (trauma). We assess the urgency of your injuries and take immediate action when health conditions are life threatening, including:

Blood replacement
Breathing tube placement
Surgical evaluation

We may perform surgery to treat traumatic injuries and life-threatening health conditions that occur due to:

Car accidents
Falls
Gunshot wounds
Head trauma
Sports injuries and other injuries

Critical Care

In addition to being board-certified in general surgery and highly trained in treating life-threatening health conditions, our acute care surgeons are also board-certified in providing round-the-clock care to help you recover (critical care). We support your organs and body systems to help you get stronger for additional treatment and to help you heal after injury or surgery.

When urgent health conditions or traumatic injuries occur, we may:

Connect a feeding tube to provide nutrition to help you recover
Create an airway using surgical procedures (tracheostomy tube)
Insert a flexible tube (catheter) to drain fluids, or provide fluids and medication
Use a machine (ventilator) to manage your breathing

Our experts use the latest proven critical care techniques to stabilize you and give you the best possible health outcome. We work closely to ensure that every member of your care team is always aware of your health status and treatment plan.

Conditions We Treat

Our surgeons treat a full range of urgent conditions. Some of the more common emergency health conditions we treat include:

Appendicitis
Surgical conditions of the gastro-intestinal tract, such as acute cholecystitis, bowel (intestinal) obstruction and diverticulitis
Hernia

Our acute care surgeons also treat injuries resulting from physical trauma. These injuries include:

Burns
Cuts (lacerations)
Damage to internal organs
Head injuries

What to Expect

When you or a loved one needs emergency surgery, our acute care surgeons meet you with compassion and expertise. When you can’t speak for yourself, we look to your family members and trusted loved ones to help us decide how you would want to be treated. We provide:

Personalized Critical Care

Our surgeons rely on their expertise and experience to develop a care plan quickly. If information is available, we learn as much as we can about you to develop a surgical treatment plan that meets your unique health needs. We work quickly with our expert anesthesiologists, nurses and critical care specialists to get you the best possible health outcome.

Round-the-Clock Expertise

Acute care surgeons meet at every shift change to discuss our patients. These regular consultations ensure that our surgeons and nurses have the information they need to provide you with continuous, coordinated care.

Advanced Surgical Techniques

We use the most advanced surgical and critical care techniques to minimize pain and promote healing. Our acute care surgeons provide most surgery types you may need. We offer laparoscopic and open surgical techniques as appropriate.