Postoperative complications

Abstract

Postoperative complications are secondary conditions (or diseases) developing unexpectedly after a surgical intervention. As for the evaluation of postoperative results a subjective element casts its shadow over the “objective” evaluation of postoperative results. A surgical act remains a hybrid produced by the blending of scientific and artistic attitudes. To reduce surgery to pure science is as wrong as to elevate it to a pure act of artistic creation. In order to find a common language in the grey zone between art and science that characterizes surgical actions, one needs maximal transparency on the employed technique as well as on the criteria used to analyze the obtained results. The requirements for the “scientific” reporting of postoperative data — invariably joined to the unspoken accusation of “unscientific” behaviour for all those who do not comply with the established rule — fit well in the present day longing for unlimited, suffocating bureaucracy but may destroy individual creativity in the name of collective uniformity.