Before You Say Yes to Surgery: Know the Risks and Alternatives

Aunt Liu is 62 years old and will go downstairs to exercise in her spare time, and she looks quite healthy. From about 3 months ago, she inexplicably developed symptoms of chest tightness. She initially thought it was caused by not sleeping well, but as time went by, the symptoms became more and more serious, and later she also developed symptoms of coughing and coughing up blood.

I went to the hospital for a check-up and found a 4cm lump in my lung, which was highly suspected to be lung cancer and had metastasized. At that time, the doctor recommended that Aunt Liu perform surgery to remove the lesion, and later cooperate with chemotherapy to improve the survival rate. The family also agreed with the doctor’s suggestion.

However, during the operation, Aunt Liu’s condition suddenly worsened and she eventually died due to ineffective rescue efforts. This is hard for Aunt Liu’s family to accept, how come a good person can’t get into the operating room? Can you live longer without surgery?

I. Most surgeries are risky

Many people have a natural sense of resistance to surgery and think that surgery will hurt “fundamentally” and that people will collapse after it is done. It is undeniable that some people experience a decrease in their postoperative physical performance due to factors such as the risk of surgery, individual differences, and poor postoperative recovery. But not all patients.

Our body is a very delicate dynamic system, and there are differences in an individual’s organ function, metabolic level, and immune system function. It is these distinctions that make the postoperative effects of each individual, as well as the recovery, difficult to predict. But the procedure itself is an invasive operation, with more or less consequences for the physiological balance.

Here are some common risks of surgery:

1. Anesthesia

Anesthesia is the first level of surgery, and there are certain risks as long as it is anesthesia. For example, “Some patients are allergic to anesthetics and will suffer from anaphylactic shock during surgery. Failure to rescue them in time may be life-threatening”.

2. Bleeding

Surgery requires cutting open skin muscles, blood vessels heart, etc., and bleeding is one of the main problems that need to be faced during surgery. Mild bleeding can lead to anemia and low blood pressure, and severe cases can threaten the patient’s life.

3. Temporarily change the technique

Some patients may find that the originally formulated plan is not suitable for the actual situation during the operation. At this time, the doctor may change the operation method or suspend the operation according to the actual situation.

4. Infection

After the operation, there are still quite a few potential risks that cannot be ignored. Wound infection is a relatively common situation. Even if the entire operation strictly follows sterile operating specifications, if the patient’s autoimmunity is weak, bacteria may still take the opportunity to invade, causing the wound to be unable to heal, and even causing systemic infection.

In particular, children, who have a much higher risk of infection after surgery than adults, like imperfect lung function and low immunity, can trigger serious infections. In addition, the patient’s activity decreases after surgery, and the blood flow rate slows down, which makes it easy to form blood clots. If the blood clots fall off and block key blood vessels, it may cause fatal problems such as myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction.

The risks involved in performing surgery in different departments are also different, even in the same department and the same surgery, patients will have different reactions due to their mild condition and physical fitness, and they should have the right mindset about this.

2. 5 diseases that do not require surgery, don’t scare yourself!

Many people’s first reaction after the diagnosis of the disease is to have surgery, ignoring that the disease may have other treatment options, and let the body “get the knife in vain”. In practice, many diseases can be treated with conservative treatment methods, and the following diseases do not require urgent surgery.

1, Hemorrhoids

Hemorrhoids are a very common disease that can be relieved by improving diet and regular bowel movements as long as there are no obvious symptoms of discomfort. If there are symptoms, they can also be relieved by topical medication. However, if your hemorrhoids often bleed, become inflamed and painful, and seriously affect your normal life, you should seek medical attention promptly for relevant treatment.

2. Thyroid nodules

Thyroid nodules are a high incidence problem. Survey data in 2010 showed an incidence rate of 18.6%. The current data is definitely only increasing. In fact, there is no need to panic after the thyroid nodules are found. Most of them are benign lesions and will not affect the secretion and synthesis of thyroxine, nor will they evolve into cancer.

What really needs attention is the larger size, the compression of the surrounding tissue, or the consideration of nodules that are at risk of malignant transformation. If there are these problems, the doctor will recommend removal.

3. Pulmonary nodules

Pulmonary nodules, like thyroid nodules, not all require surgery. For example, “benign pulmonary nodules only require regular follow-up; nodules with precancerous lesions but relatively stable can be followed up regularly to observe the dynamics and do not rush for surgery; and some older patients have discovered small malignant nodules.”, the threat posed by nodules does not match life expectancy, and surgery is not required.

4. Liver and kidney cysts

Most benign liver and kidney cysts do not require treatment and can be followed up once every 6 to 12 months. However, if it is >5 cm in diameter, compresses surrounding tissue, complicated cysts, as well as pathological cysts, consult your doctor if you want to perform surgery.

5, Disc herniation

Most of the herniated disc can be recovered with conservative treatment, our body has a strong ability to repair itself, and most of the herniated part can be absorbed over time. Daily exercise can also be used to strengthen the waist muscles and reduce the pressure caused by protrusion on the waist. You can also try acupuncture, massage, hot compress, etc. to relieve discomfort.

Of course, some patients who have severe functional disorders such as incontinence of urine and feces and weakness of the lower limbs due to protruding compression of nerves must consult a doctor in time for surgery.

Any surgery carries certain risks, and what we need to do is to weigh up the pros and cons of the surgery and choose the one that will benefit us more. Rather than blind rejection or blind superstition of surgery, neither of these practices is desirable.