With advances in medical technology and medical devices, more and more patients are enjoying minimally invasive treatments in clinical medicine due to their minimal invasiveness and greatly improved safety compared to previous techniques. The word minimally invasive literally means very little trauma, so some people – not only patients but also medical professionals – equate minimally invasive surgery with minor surgery. But is that really the case? I remember when I was practicing general surgery at Peking University, the contraindications for many diseases were clearly stated to be contraindicated or relatively contraindicated over the age of 70. One of my teachers also used to teach us that “there is no minor surgery over 70 years old”! Later, I read a book “Geriatric Surgery”, the first chapter of which clearly points out that when people reach 70 years old, the function of their various organ systems decreases significantly compared to that of 30 years old, for example, kidney function decreases by 70% and cardiopulmonary function decreases by 30-50%, so an operation that is a minor operation for a young patient is a major operation for an elderly patient. We all know that we can run and run fast, jump long distances and high jumps, and carry heavy loads when we are 20-30 years old, but how many elderly people around ourselves can run and jump and carry bags of rice? When we run 100 meters, our heart rate may reach more than 100 times, while our usual daily life heart rate may only be 70-80 times; similarly, the body produces more waste during strong exercise, to mobilize the liver and kidney function for detoxification and excretion, the elderly lack this reserve function The elderly lack this reserve function . Therefore, some elderly people who are usually in excellent health may suffer from various complications once they undergo surgery, even minimally invasive surgery. This is because surgery is no less than a strenuous exercise for the body, and even a so-called “minor surgery” such as appendicitis requires the mobilization of all systems of the body. The term “minor surgery” is a very vague concept often used by patients and some doctors. Do you talk about it from the patient’s side or from the doctor’s side? From the patient’s side, as mentioned earlier, there are no minor surgeries over the age of 70. From the doctor’s side, a difficult surgery can be done easily by a doctor who has been trained for many years, while a simple surgery can be very difficult for a novice. If a doctor claims that an operation is a minor one, at least it means that he himself thinks that the operation may not be important and that he is familiar with it, which is a kind of paralysis in the mind, and the more this happens, the more likely it is that something will go wrong. Therefore, when I talk to patients, especially those over 70 years old, I try to avoid using the unscientific term “minor surgery”. The term “minor surgery” is relative, and “minimally invasive surgery” is even more relative to the previous surgical methods, so some minimally invasive surgeries may be very tedious, and although the trauma is smaller, the risk of surgery is not reduced to zero. At present, minimally invasive treatment However, no hospital can guarantee 100% success rate and survival rate of minimally invasive treatment. Therefore, as a doctor, you should inform patients and families objectively with a scientific attitude that even minimally invasive surgery has various risks, which can lead to death or sequelae; as a patient and family, don’t be fooled by some doctors’ unscientific references. As patients and families, don’t be fooled by some doctors’ unscientific references. It is important to know that any medical practice has its good aspects and its possible bad aspects. From a philosophical point of view, anyone who has studied dialectical materialism knows that everything has two sides of a conflict, a primary and a secondary conflict, and a primary and a secondary side of a conflict. Generally speaking, a treatment method is worth promoting if most patients can benefit from it, so the benefit is its primary aspect, and the various complications are its secondary aspects, but the secondary aspects can be catastrophic for patients and their families once they occur. So both doctors and patients and their families need to have an objective understanding of the disease and medical treatment, even for the application of minimally invasive techniques, and not to be blindly optimistic!