Indications and contraindications of surgery. Legal aspects of surgery. Surgical risk

1. Big picture

This topic is about the decision to operate — not the technique. Before any operation you must be able to justify three things:

WHY operate?      → the indication (does the benefit outweigh the risk?)
WHY NOT operate?  → the contraindication (is the risk unacceptable right now?)
IS IT LEGAL?      → valid informed consent + correct documentation

For the oral exam, the key idea is:

An operation is justified only when the expected benefit clearly outweighs the risk of the surgery and anaesthesia, the patient (or a legal substitute) has given valid informed consent, and there is no contraindication that cannot be corrected or accepted.

The three ora