You must have encountered the trouble of going back and forth between different departments or offices because of a small lesion, and not getting the expected result after hours of tossing and turning. In fact, when you go to a tertiary care hospital, you will inevitably encounter such an embarrassing or even angry situation because of the detailed subspecialties. Therefore, it is important to choose the right department for consultation, to get the diagnosis and treatment in time, to choose the consultation process, and to understand the relevant knowledge to get twice the result with half the effort. So, which diseases belong to the scope of general surgery treatment? Generally speaking, surface infections and swellings, thyroid swellings or nodules, abdominal trauma, ventral hernia, and acute abdomen all fall under the scope of general surgery. Specifically, if you have a trauma to the limbs or spine, with or without fracture, you should go to orthopedics. Due to the refinement of orthopedic specialties, hand and foot trauma are now handled by orthopedics. In contrast, thoracic and urinary lesions can be seen directly in hospitals with thoracic and urologic surgery. Head trauma or intracranial diseases are especially handled in hospitals with brain surgery or neurosurgery. In general, the common diseases seen in general surgery are mainly digestive tract, thyroid, hernia, body surface infections or mass lesions. It is also important to note that tertiary general hospitals generally only see patients over the age of 16. For infants and young children, it is recommended that they be seen in hospitals with pediatric surgery, as these hospitals generally have only pediatric internal medicine and no pediatric surgery, and can only do preliminary treatment for non-life-threatening superficial trauma. Since the physiological and pathological characteristics of pediatric patients are different from those of adults, and the means of examination are limited, it is necessary to consult a specialized hospital to determine whether there is an organ function injury or lesion. In Chinese hospitals, breast and anorectal have become independent departments, which are more specialized in the treatment of lesions such as breast disease, constipation and hemorrhoids, and can be directly selected for their own lesions. For common superficial burns, if the area is not large, they can be handled by general surgery. However, serious burns, burns that may cause dysfunction during the recovery period, and large burns must be treated at a specialist hospital, and it is more difficult to deal with a general hospital without a burn department so as not to delay the best time for treatment. Of course, although the current subspecialty is becoming more and more detailed has become an irreversible trend, some lesions are not a single which department can diagnose clearly at once. Especially in the case of complex lesions, multi-departmental consultation is inevitable. Generally speaking, it is mainly lesions or injuries in critical areas, such as groin lesions, which may involve general surgery or urology; lower abdominal pain in female patients, which may involve gynecology or urology; thyroid lesions, which require general surgical evaluation by endocrinology or in cases where surgery is indicated; gallbladder stones and pancreatitis, which are transferred from gastroenterology to general surgery due to changes in condition or clarification of diagnosis; skin lesions, etc. Unlike community hospital visits, where most community physicians are general practitioners and may obtain a preliminary diagnosis in one visit, in general hospitals, sometimes a multidisciplinary approach is required, which requires the attention of the patient’s friends. Therefore, with the exception of sudden lesions such as acute abdominal disease, which are seen directly in the emergency room. Before registering for an outpatient consultation, friends should not take for granted the choice of department for themselves, but should first go to the consultation desk, which is staffed by professionals and can make a preliminary judgment of your symptoms. The staff at the registration desk are non-professional, mostly based on experience, not always accurate, and sometimes make their own detours, adding a lot of trouble. And if you need to check or other departments in general surgery consultation, you should listen to the doctor’s arrangement to improve efficiency, do not understand the procedure must understand clearly, so as to save time and effort in the consultation process, in the fastest time to get the correct diagnosis and treatment.