Point/Counterpoint

Excerpt

The practice of medicine is not a precise science, it is an art that requires a physician to make a clinical decision that best suits the correct management of, or operation for, his/her individual patient. The clinician is often faced with the choice of several clinical treatment options. Nowhere is this truer than in the practice of surgery where there is often more than one procedure that can be performed to correct a disease process, or more than one operative approach to achieve the same operative management of that disease. Laparoscopy may seem to be the best choice, particularly in the short term, because of the reduced postoperative pain, the shorter hospital stay, and patient preference, however it may not always be the correct approach when weighing the complications and the long-term management of disease. …