The Use of Emergency Physicians to Deliver Anesthesia for Orthopaedic Surgery in Austere Environments: The Expansion of the Emergency Physician's General Anesthesia Syllabus to Orthopaedic Surgery.

Background: Five billion people, primarily in low-income and middle-income countries, cannot access safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care, particularly for orthopaedic trauma. The rate-limiting step for many orthopaedic surgical procedures performed in the developing world is the absence of safe anesthesia. Even surgical mission teams providing surgical care are limited by the availability of anesthesiologists.