Rules of surgery

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The Rules of Surgery are informal rules of surgery passed down orally in medical school and residency. The highly oral nature of this tradition, is conserved among residents from widely geographically dispersed medical schools.

Variation 1:

  1. Eat when you can
  2. Sleep when you can
  3. Don't mess with the pancreas

Variation 2:

  1. See a donut (or slice, at some institutions), eat a donut (slice)
  2. Don't stand when you can sit
  3. Don't sit when you can lie down
  4. Don't lie down when you can sleep
  5. Never mess with the pancreas
  6. Nobody ever got a facial fracture who didn't deserve it

Variation 3:

  1. Tie before you cut
  2. A chance to cut is a chance to cure
  3. Every patient has at least three surgical lesions
  4. Never remove a tube after the sun goes down
  5. When you operate for pain you find it
  6. Treat the chief complaint
  7. All students cut sutures too long or too short

[edit] References

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