“Every time patients voluntarily allow me, as a surgeon, to cut through their skin and enter their bodies, I realise how exceptional and privileged this situation is” says Nicole Bouvy. Yet, paradoxically enough, Bouvy prefers not to use the surgical knife at all, or as little as possible, because “no operation is without the risk of complications related to the surgical knife.” [Filmed at TEDxMaastricht]
“Every time patients voluntarily allow me, as a surgeon, to cut through their skin and enter their bodies, I realise how exceptional and privileged this situation is” says Nicole Bouvy, Professor of Innovative Surgical Techniques at the Maastricht University Medical Centre. As a surgeon, Bouvy is led by the motto: ‘Do no further harm’. “Any surgical operation represents a considerable intervention in a human body. I find it very important to try not to make the problem worse than necessary,” she says.
Bouvy obtained her PhD degree in 1997, on the physiological and oncological consequences of laparoscopy, or minimally invasive surgery.
Setting aside specific surgical cases such as accidents, Bouvy predicts that early detection of anomalies in the human body will make the surgical knife disappear altogether.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
