The art of surgery in the 21st century: based on natural sciences and new ethical dimensions

In the future, new surgical techniques will only be introduced in clinical practice if evidence-based results—frequently the results of controlled clinical trials—are presented. Unlike any other medical discipline, surgeons provide their diagnostic and operative skills through the surgeons’ hand and the use of technical equipment, which ranges from instruments and devices employed during operation to the use of surgical robots.

Analysing the fundaments of surgery on the turn of the century, there is only a little doubt about the increasing impact of data deriving from natural sciences on knowledge in medicine and management of diseases. The natural scientific method of detecting, measuring, and verifying facts is the methodological basis of surgery as well. The autonomy of the surgeon’s clinical decision making is significantly restricted by the definition of guidelines. They shift the decision from a single patient to a collective panel. Patient safety and the efficiency of new treatment modalities compared with previous standards are the criteria for the judgement of innovative surgery today. The communication and interaction between surgeon-scientist and patients is guaranteed legally by written consensus. But beside of the high probability of benefit from therapy and written consensus, the surgeon–patient relation is determined by these factors: limitation of time for care of an individual patient, increase of time for administration and documentation, increase of bureaucratic barriers for medical research, and health cost constraints.

The medical mandate to cure a sick patient is an individual mandate to take action. Measures, numbers, and images are only preconditions for a surgeon’s action in daily clinical work; they can never replace it. The call for an ethical imperative in scientific surgery that is dependent on technology is justified when the state of science and uncritical use of surgical skills and financial constraints have major impact on providing medical care.