It's time to challenge surgical dogma with evidence-based data

Surgical training is an apprenticeship with surgical techniques passed from one physician to another. Often these techniques are based more on surgical dogma than scientific evidence. Despite surgical dogma to the contrary, electrocautery is the preferred technique for wound creation, and peritoneal closure has no significant advantage over nonclosure. No method of handling the subcutaneous tissue is clearly superior; however, suture closure appears to have some advantages in preventing wound disruption. Subcuticular suture closure results in less pain and better patient satisfaction, and it is more cost-effective than surgical staples. These surgical techniques, as well as many others, need to be subjected to rigorous, randomized prospective trials. It is incumbent on each physician to ensure that his or her surgical techniques are evidence based and not simply the result of adherence to surgical dogma.