During the French-Mexican War, a poorly supplied and outnumbered Mexican army under General Ignacio Zaragoza defeats a French army attempting to capture Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico.
At least 30% to 50% of graduating general surgeons take fellowships and ultimately narrow the scope of their practices. These surgeons do not perform all the procedures that the average general surgeon does. Almost 50% of medical school graduates are women, and up to 40% of surgical residents are women as well. Here is âthe elephant in the roomâ that no one wants to talk about.
The number of general surgeons needed to adequately serve the population is estimated to be at least 7 per 100,000 people. Currently, there are about 18,000 active general surgeons in the US, or 5.8 per 100,000 people. The ratio of general surgeons per 100,000 population has dropped by 26% in the last 25 years. Medical schools are expanding class sizes and a few new schools are opening, but it will take several years for the impact of these changes to be felt.