"Benign" Procedures Still Have Inherent Risks

[Justin]

Well, I just wanted to pass a story along to everyone.

There is a physician at school that has had severe complications from a "routine" CT scan. He was admitted to the hospital for a simple ventral hernia procedure. The CT scan dye caused renal failure and he ended up having multi-system problems and infection, which resulted in a three month stay in the hospital.

This is just a gentle reminder that even procedures / imaging we treat as "benign" like CT scans still have inherent risks. We, as patients, tend to forget this...

[phylly]

Dr. J.,
It is important to know all the risks of the procedures we do. I sometimes don't know whether to be scared out of doing them or not. I did want to ask you what you thought of a revision surgery through the front. The risks are life threatening but so are the risks of not doing anything. Should we do the safer surgery that may not be as beneficial? How do we decide when to take the risk?
Phylly