I am a surgeon, and surgery is my main means of treating diseases. In my clinical work, I often have patients ask me: Doctor, do I have to have surgery? Why I have seen several doctors, all gave me different answers, some said surgery is necessary, some said no surgery, I am now confused, can you help me decide? What is the best treatment? Now on this issue and I would like to discuss with the majority of patients.
I divide surgery into 3 types: surgery that must be done, surgery that does not need to be done, and surgery that is debatable. Lu Zhidong, Department of Orthopedic Surgery III, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University
The first type of surgery is often related to the patient’s life and will seriously affect the function of the body, and surgery is the only effective means of treatment, it must be decided immediately. Such as open fractures must be operated as soon as possible, otherwise time more than 12 hours, wound infection is inevitable, and the treatment of osteomyelitis is also very tricky; for the huge intracranial hematoma, hemopneumothorax, rupture of important organs, serious injury to important blood vessels and other cases is no other choice, only this Huashan a road. Doctors and patients work together, perhaps the patient will usher in a second life, if the family members look ahead and hesitate, the chances of death of the patient is great.
The second is the situation that most doctors believe does not require surgery, these disorders neither threaten the life of the patient nor affect the function of the body. Examples are crack fractures of the bones and, in the vast majority of children, clavicle fractures. In these cases, a trained surgeon will not recommend surgery.
The third type is the most numerous and the one that entangles the majority of patients. The choice of treatment is often a complex one, depending on the extent of the doctor’s knowledge, his or her training, his or her level of understanding of the disorder, the patient’s education, the patient’s expectations, the patient’s mental capacity, the patient’s age, the attitude of the patient’s family, etc. This is why the confusion at the beginning of the article arises: why do different doctors give different treatment opinions for the same patient. So how can patients make a reasonable decision?
The first is to go to a larger, regular hospital because the doctors at these institutions have undergone formal medical training and have more access to the latest knowledge, technology and frontiers of the discipline, and they also have a strict pre-operative discussion system for surgical patients, which can avoid unnecessary surgery and minimize the occurrence of accidents. Secondly, don’t trust medical advertisements in the media, especially drug and treatment advertisements in TV programs, most of these are false, and sometimes I wonder if I am not a doctor, I may also believe these advertisements, they are so cleverly disguised that people without a formal medical background can’t tell the difference between true and false. Thirdly try not to go to hospitals that are purely for profit, in these sectors, chasing profits is their ultimate goal, the indications for surgery are often very lenient, many patients who can be treated conservatively are likely to be highly recommended for surgery and will tell you that if you don’t operate early you will ……. Fourthly, ask your doctor if there are any other treatments besides surgery, so that you can have a good idea of the risks of surgery and the natural regression of the disease as well as understand as clearly as possible. Fifthly, be alert to doctors who only say that surgery is effective without mentioning the risks of surgery, always remember that surgery is risky and the risks always go hand in hand with the benefits. Sixthly, you should have a better mentality. There is a saying that I agree with, “If you are sick, you should leave your fate to God and your body to the doctor. Seventh to choose a doctor you trust, he may not be the top, but must be your trust, or find another doctor it. The eighth is to have a bit of a “gambler’s” mentality. Surgical treatment is often effective and precise, but it is also important to see that the risk is also relatively large, once serious complications arise, will greatly offset the benefits of surgery, causing more harm to patients, but the difference with gambling is that: gambling is often to lose money, the chance of winning is very small; most surgical treatment is safer, the possibility of failure is small, and the patient has a good chance of gaining If you are missing this last point, then I urge you: don’t have surgery!