Does experimental surgery still exist?

During the last two decades research in surgery has changed from a specific to an interdisciplinary approach. Accordingly, the research approaches in surgery show marked overlap with those of other disciplines, such as oncology, immunology, gastroenterology, cardiology and intensive care medicine. This questions the need of experimental surgery in the future. A current survey, however, showed that experimental surgery still produces a multitude of excellent scientific studies, which substantially contribute to the development in surgery and, thus, to the improvement of surgical care. In addition experimental surgery coins the analytical thinking of young surgeons and mediates the enthusiasm and motivation to search for the undiscovered in surgery. Therefore, there is need to further support experimental surgery as an essential component of academic surgery. Thus, it can be concluded that experimental research still represents a prerequisite for innovations in operative medicine and also contributes to the improvement of scientific performance in surgery.