Surgery to Improve Patient Care: Sometimes More, Sometimes Less

The art and practice of surgery has undergone many changes and advancements over the past 30 years. I have experienced many of these over the past 20 years during my surgical training and position as staff surgeon at a residency training program. Earlier in my training, the Bassini tissue inguinal hernia repair was a common surgical procedure, residents worked over 100 hours per week, and a trainee would have to argue why a costly computed tomography (CT) scan was necessary before proceeding to the operating room.