ADVANCES IN SURGERY

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28450, 3 December 1957, Page 7

ADVANCES IN SURGERY

Fear Of Operations Deplored (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 2. It was time a big section of the public rid itself of fear complexes about aspects of surgery, especially regarding cancer, said Mr Edward Hughes, a specialist Melbourne surgeon, in Auckland today People were still clinging to old-fashioned ideas—wrong ideas—often conditioned, understandably perhaps, by sad memories of friends or relatives on whom past operations had failed, he added. Mr Hughes is one ol two guest speakers at a curren* surgical conference in Auckland. “In the last 10 years advances in anaesthesia have been tremendous,” he said. “As for surgery —well, it is possible now to remove a person’s whole stomach and, with refashioning, for that person to lead a normal, healthy existence. ‘Terror’ of the operating theatre and all that it means are completely out of nlace nowadays.” Like Professor Wangensteen, an American surgeon and a world authority on the disease, Mr Hughes believes strongly that the patient’s first line of hope with any deep-seated cancer is surgery. He believes, too, that doctors have a duty to tell a patient if he has a cancer.

“If the patient is told,” he said, “he will accept the advice and he will be more co-operative. Even though a first operation may not prove completely successful, it is still possible on occasions to effect a cure when the cancer recurs.”