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Endocrine Surgery
Endocrine Surgery
Foreword E n d o c r i n e Su r g e r y
Ronald F. Martin, MD, FACS Consulting Editor
By the time this issue of the Surgical Clinics of North America is distributed, we will be approaching the end of another academic year and the beginning of a new one. The start of a new academic year is more than just a calendar event; it is an opportunity to reassess what we surgeons do and why—at least if you are a program director. One of the more frustrating aspects of being a program director is the Sisyphean nature of the job as the boulder of educating residents seems to roll back down the mountain every year. It appears as if we just keep repeating ourselves while covering familiar ground year after year. Of course, the perception is false for two fundamental reasons: it is always a new group of residents for whom it is not repetition and we don’t really cover the same ground. Those who have completed their training move on to new adventures and those left behind look at things through slightly different lenses each day. Also, while one never steps in the same river twice, as the proverb goes, you get wet every time you step in a river. Some things are fairly consistent year after year though. Invariably one of our new residents will refer to a patient’s operation as a “surgery” and that will cause me to remind them that surgery is a way of life, a state of mind, and a discipline—occasionally a passion. I will also tell them operations are procedures performed by surgeons in operating rooms and ramble on as I sometimes do. As I have stated before, if one looks up the definition of “Surgery,” one will find my new resident was well within her rights to use the term as she did. Nonetheless, I will remain undaunted by facts in my reticence to acquiesce to low-grade terminology. In this instance, I stand my ground for one reason: I need the resident to understand that surgery is only to a very minor degree about operating. Our discipline is about everything in regard to the care of the patient and operating is but one of the tools we use to make our communities better and safer places to live. I can think of few better topics than Endocrine Surgery to illustrate this point. As one reads through the outstanding articles in this issue by Dr Mazzaglia and his colleagues, one will quickly discern that much of what we focus on in the care of patients with
Surg Clin N Am 94 (2014) xiii–xiv http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.suc.2014.04.002 0039-6109/14/$ – see front matter Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc.
surgical.theclinics.com
xiv
Foreword
endocrine disorders involves almost anything but the operative considerations. That, by no means, diminishes the value and importance of excellent operative skills being essential to the endocrine surgeon. However, to be effective as a surgeon who manages patients with endocrine disorders, one must have a clear and detailed grasp of the biochemical, genetic, and physiologic aspects of endocrine disease as well as an excellent understanding of the imaging techniques used and their scientific basis. Occasionally distance and time are required to achieve perspective on change. If one reviews past issues of our series on endocrine surgery, the evolution of discourse from operative management to comprehensive understanding is clear. Endocrine surgery may well be a bellwether to us all that our role will be to expand our comprehensive management of the patient while rapidly decreasing the degree of invasion and operative management to whatever degree possible. I encourage the reader to study these articles well and I thank Dr Mazzaglia and his colleagues for an excellent contribution to this series. Ronald F. Martin, MD, FACS Department of Surgery Marshfield Clinic 1000 North Oak Avenue Marshfield, WI 54449, USA E-mail address: [email protected]
Foreword E n d o c r i n e Su r g e r y
Ronald F. Martin, MD, FACS Consulting Editor
By the time this issue of the Surgical Clinics of North America is distributed, we will be approaching the end of another academic year and the beginning of a new one. The start of a new academic year is more than just a calendar event; it is an opportunity to reassess what we surgeons do and why—at least if you are a program director. One of the more frustrating aspects of being a program director is the Sisyphean nature of the job as the boulder of educating residents seems to roll back down the mountain every year. It appears as if we just keep repeating ourselves while covering familiar ground year after year. Of course, the perception is false for two fundamental reasons: it is always a new group of residents for whom it is not repetition and we don’t really cover the same ground. Those who have completed their training move on to new adventures and those left behind look at things through slightly different lenses each day. Also, while one never steps in the same river twice, as the proverb goes, you get wet every time you step in a river. Some things are fairly consistent year after year though. Invariably one of our new residents will refer to a patient’s operation as a “surgery” and that will cause me to remind them that surgery is a way of life, a state of mind, and a discipline—occasionally a passion. I will also tell them operations are procedures performed by surgeons in operating rooms and ramble on as I sometimes do. As I have stated before, if one looks up the definition of “Surgery,” one will find my new resident was well within her rights to use the term as she did. Nonetheless, I will remain undaunted by facts in my reticence to acquiesce to low-grade terminology. In this instance, I stand my ground for one reason: I need the resident to understand that surgery is only to a very minor degree about operating. Our discipline is about everything in regard to the care of the patient and operating is but one of the tools we use to make our communities better and safer places to live. I can think of few better topics than Endocrine Surgery to illustrate this point. As one reads through the outstanding articles in this issue by Dr Mazzaglia and his colleagues, one will quickly discern that much of what we focus on in the care of patients with
Surg Clin N Am 94 (2014) xiii–xiv http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.suc.2014.04.002 0039-6109/14/$ – see front matter Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc.
surgical.theclinics.com
xiv
Foreword
endocrine disorders involves almost anything but the operative considerations. That, by no means, diminishes the value and importance of excellent operative skills being essential to the endocrine surgeon. However, to be effective as a surgeon who manages patients with endocrine disorders, one must have a clear and detailed grasp of the biochemical, genetic, and physiologic aspects of endocrine disease as well as an excellent understanding of the imaging techniques used and their scientific basis. Occasionally distance and time are required to achieve perspective on change. If one reviews past issues of our series on endocrine surgery, the evolution of discourse from operative management to comprehensive understanding is clear. Endocrine surgery may well be a bellwether to us all that our role will be to expand our comprehensive management of the patient while rapidly decreasing the degree of invasion and operative management to whatever degree possible. I encourage the reader to study these articles well and I thank Dr Mazzaglia and his colleagues for an excellent contribution to this series. Ronald F. Martin, MD, FACS Department of Surgery Marshfield Clinic 1000 North Oak Avenue Marshfield, WI 54449, USA E-mail address: [email protected]