I understand that patients often ask online what is the success rate (how sure they are) and what is the risk of surgery, but it is really difficult to answer these questions, and even if you do, it may not mean much to the individual patient. First of all, the concept of “success rate” is ambiguous. If the surgery saves life, but there are different degrees of neurological impairment (such as hemiplegia, facial palsy, diplopia, choking on water, loss of vision, or even coma, etc.), is this a success or an unsuccess? Secondly, the so-called “success rate” is a statistical result of a group of cases, such as the total number of surgeries in a year, how much mortality, how much coma, how much hemiplegia, etc. It is a comprehensive statistical result of various cases, which is not significant for individual patients. If the doctor tells you that the “success rate” is 99%, you may be the 1% if you are unfortunate enough to have it happen (please understand that the analogy is not appropriate!). Third, the so-called “success rate” has a lot to do with the location of the surgery, the age of the patient, the presence of underlying diseases, and whether or not to operate again, so it cannot be generalized. For example, the mortality rate and neurological dysfunction rate of surgery on the brainstem and nearby locations are higher than those of other locations; fourth, surgery is not a simple mechanical operation and repetition, the doctor facing each case is concentrating his wisdom and physical strength in fighting with the disease, and his own experience and limit in the battle. Even if a surgeon succeeds in his first 100 operations, he cannot guarantee that the 101st case will be as successful as the first 100! Every surgery is a challenge, and the success of the previous surgery does not necessarily mean the same for the next one. It can be said that every surgeon’s life has surgery-related deaths and serious surgery-related complications, and we know how many families are involved in every surgery with a bad outcome, and often the families spend a lot of money! But medicine is a science, there are still many unanswered questions, there are many unknowns, not every disease can be cured, and not every surgery can be completely as desired! All we can do is to be wholehearted! We can do our best! Patients trust me, entrust me with their lives, this is a solemn trust, we can only use their knowledge and skills, do our best, do not consider their own honor and disgrace gain or loss, to operate wholeheartedly to treat patients, for the best results, if we do our best, bad results still happen, I hope you can understand the doctor! Doctors and family members alike want the patient’s surgery to be successful! Fifth, if any doctor tells you that his success rate of surgery is how much, I guess that is also his casual remarks, basically there is no scientific basis, as mentioned above, is the success rate of 99%, and who can guarantee that you are within the 99%? You will choose doctor A because his “success rate” is 99% and doctor B’s “success rate” is 95%? Therefore, it is not very meaningful to ask about the success rate, the key is to see if the doctor is dedicated, dedicated, dedicated! Note: Many friends in the online consultation commonly asked about the success rate of surgery, I have already explained in another consultation guide – “a few common questions about online consultation”, in order to make the online consultation friends can more conveniently view this information, I specially take out that part for your reference. Xiong Hui, Department of Neurosurgery, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine