title: When You Operate on Friends and Relatives: Results of a Survey among Surgeons.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We designed a questionnaire to collect data on surgeons' views and experiences of operating on friends or relatives.
  
  
  METHODS
  A link to a 38-item online survey was sent to all 16,849 members of the Professional Board of German Surgeons (Bund Deutscher Chirurgen, BDC) several times. Standard interview software was used. The questionnaire collected a wide variety of information concerning how surgeons have experienced, think about, and deal with the situation when they operate on friends or relatives.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 16,849 BDC members notified of the survey, 1,643 completed the questionnaires (9.8%). Of these, 1,275 (77.6%) had previously performed surgery on friends or relatives. Overall, the surgeons willingly accepted doing so without experiencing any difficulties. However, the surgeons frequently used different techniques when operating on friends and relatives (123 [10%] when self-assessed compared to 527 [35%] when observed by others). Out of the whole sample, 506 (30.8%) would appreciate having a guideline or ethical code and 370 (41.2%) of those who have not yet operated on friends and relatives would like to have such an ethical code.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most of the surgeons who responded accepted the task of operating on friends or relatives. Performing surgery on friends or relatives was a complex matter because objectivity was not guaranteed. Negative implications on personal relationships were rare. We recommend that this matter should be well considered and discussed with the patient and an ethical guideline or code should be created.
authors.affiliation: Department of General, Visceral, Vascular and Thoracic Surgery, Hospital of Kempten, Kempten, Germany.
authors.forename: Jurgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Knuth
authors.forename: Dirk Rolf
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Bulian
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ansorg
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Büchler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D032781:Codes of Ethics; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D066231:Surgeons / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Conflict; Ethics; General surgery; Next of kin; Survey