Surgical Regret and Intraoperative Decision-Making: A Living Donor Kidney Case

Surgical regret often experienced at times of a great loss may cause a surgeon to reflect on their practice and intraoperative decision-making. It is inevitable that in the surgical profession, both in training and practice, a surgeon’s decisions will be questioned by themselves, peers, and possibly patients. Here, we explore a case of living donor kidney donation in which the surgeon chooses to discontinue the operation for an incidental finding. Ultimately, this is against the patient’s wishes and a decision over which both the surgeon and patient experience moral hazard and regret. This article explores surgical regret from the lens of an altruistic donor case and a surgeon’s inaction, discussing the ethics of the operative decision-making and surgeon’s viewpoint intra- and post-operatively.