• Question: What is the most difficult surgery you have performed?

    Asked by anon-181161 to Damian on 15 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Damian Mole

      Damian Mole answered on 15 Jun 2018:

      Probably a difficult pancreas operation – the pancreas is the surgical soul!

      Surgery can be difficult because of many reasons:
      Surgical factors (tricky anatomy and challenging disease, for example repeat operations in scar tissue, or where cancer or inflammation has stuck everything together inside);
      Patient factors (obesity, bleeding risk, fragile tissues, overall frail person);
      Decision-making factors – when is the right time to operate, or most difficult – whether to operate at all…there is an old saying that goes that a good surgeon knows *how* to operate, a better surgeon knows *when* to operate and the best surgeon knows *when not to* operate.

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