Endocrine surgery

Excerpt

Endocrine Surgery has developed worldwide as a specialized field over the last 35 years. Scientific national organizations have evolved in many countries, first in Scandinavia during the 1970s, and many countries today have national organizations. However, there are still many European countries without a proper endocrine surgical organization although they have many excellent surgeons in the endocrine field. The question is sometimes raised whether we need endocrine surgery; these cases are easily handled by general surgeons. Time has unequivocally shown that this is not true. The general surgeon of old times doing all types of surgery is disappearing. With the huge expansion of knowledge in the medical field, it is no longer possible to educate a general surgeon for the whole surgical field. Our patients have the right to demand that their endocrine surgical problems are handled by specialists with deep knowledge not only on technical aspects but also of physiology and pathology of endocrine diseases and tumors in the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, and other endocrine abdominal glands. …