WSES SM (World Society of Emergency Surgery Summer Meeting) highlights: emergency surgery around the world (Brazil, Finland, USA)

Aim of this paper is to present history, current scope, current training program and new politics for training national program of 3 countries of different continents.Brazil, Finland and US emergency surgery models are presented discussing all criticisms showed during the WSES Summer Meeting 2008.Trauma is the second cause of death in Brazil killing more than 130.000 people per year. Emergency surgery is also a health problem because many surgical diseases are not diagnosed earlier allowing the onset of complications that require emergency surgical treatment. On the other hand the health ministry has defined trauma and all emergencies as priority areas of interest in Brazil and has invested in improvements as the pre hospital care system in the whole country. Traditionally trauma and emergency surgery were always treated together in the emergency department of public general hospitals in Brazil. Until now great progresses have been obtained by the Brazilian surgical community with the intense experience of the emergency departments and the development of new surgical techniques, thanks to the ability of improvisation and the great creativity of the Brazilian surgeons. Programs like ATLS are spread in the entire country. Others like the PHTLS are growing actively. During the last two decades the pre hospital care system that didn't exist, grew quickly and now covers around 800 cities and 50% of the country population. On the other hand, as for organization and the system development levels we are still sprouting. The Brazilian Trauma Society, a medical society that congregates surgeons and other professionals of trauma care only now is getting independent and self maintained. The Committee on Trauma of the Brazilian College of Surgeons is also starting to march towards the establishment of local protocols and patterns for the surgeon that works in the emergency department. There is a lot to do. We have no national data bank and there is no specific residency program