From evidence-based medicine to evidence-based surgery: Do we extrapolate?

Objectives The application of Evidence-Based principles to surgery is hindered by various obstacles. We tried to identify them in order to assess the legitimacy of Evidence-Based Surgery (EBS). Patients and method A qualitative study conducted over a period of one month in an academic centre of hepatobiliary surgery using questionnaires for patients, surgeons and the patients’ medical notes. Results Thirteen patients agreed to participate and were included. One hundred percent of patients received treatment fulfilling the definition of EBS, of which 38.5% are supported by a randomized controlled trial and 76.9% are supported by at least a retrospective study. In addition, discrepancy between transmitted scientific information by the surgeon and received scientific information by the patient was observed in 23.1%. Conclusion EBS should be seen as an improvement but it is still limited by inadequate assessment tools for surgery. The situational aspect seems omitted. EBS should therefore not be granted with an evidence greater than retrospective study