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Lee Swanstrom, MD

Arch Surg. 2008;143(8):768.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.¹

The notion of difficulty in surgery is an interesting one to consider. Surgeons do not, as a matter of course, think of particular types of operations as more or less hard; they are more likely to find a particular patient difficult, whether for anatomic, physiologic, or psychological reasons. It is true that some procedures are by nature more demanding than others; this usually relates to their complexity (pancreatoduodenectomy), the degree of patient risk (clipping a brain aneurysm), or the length of time of the case (en bloc esophagectomy). Still, most surgeons who may not think twice about a Whipple procedure or gastric bypass, if that is their routine practice, have experienced dread and severe stress when contemplating a hernia repair or cholecystectomy on a very frail or sick patient; or when . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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