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Elective surgery
 
 
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Elective surgery is surgery
Surgery

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason....
 that is not urgently required due to an emergency
Emergency

An emergency is a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or Natural environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative care for the aftermath....
. Elective surgery may be performed for medical purposes, such as cataract surgery
Cataract surgery

Cataract surgery is the removal of the lens of the eye that has developed an opacification, which is referred to as a cataract. Metabolic changes of the crystalline lens fibers over the time lead to the development of the cataract and loss of transparency, causing impairment or loss of vision....
, or for other work such as breast implants. These are procedures that the person requiring them decides to undertake, and which may be helpful, but are not necessarily essential.

However, the term is not without definition problems. Some countries or health systems for example consider hip replacements as elective surgery, because a bad hip is not life-threatening, even though it may effectively cripple the patient.






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Encyclopedia


Elective surgery is surgery
Surgery

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason....
 that is not urgently required due to an emergency
Emergency

An emergency is a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or Natural environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative care for the aftermath....
. Elective surgery may be performed for medical purposes, such as cataract surgery
Cataract surgery

Cataract surgery is the removal of the lens of the eye that has developed an opacification, which is referred to as a cataract. Metabolic changes of the crystalline lens fibers over the time lead to the development of the cataract and loss of transparency, causing impairment or loss of vision....
, or for other work such as breast implants. These are procedures that the person requiring them decides to undertake, and which may be helpful, but are not necessarily essential.

However, the term is not without definition problems. Some countries or health systems for example consider hip replacements as elective surgery, because a bad hip is not life-threatening, even though it may effectively cripple the patient.