[Intuition and surgical responsibility].

Abstract

The vast majority of surgical tasks can be managed by using basic, special and experts' knowledge gained during many years of clinical training and by applying solid surgical skills. This refers to elective cases as well as to emergency surgery and to general surgeons as well as to subspecialists. Consensus statements and standards of care derived from objective study results are aimed to be helpful as practice guidelines and in the decision making process. Only rare, non-foreseeable, unexpected and suddenly occurring exceptional situations require actions based on intuition, which results from a quick, sharp and brilliant decision founded on huge knowledge and experience. But in the scope of surgical work an overstatement or a mystic glorification of intuition should always be avoided.