[Quality assurance in surgery: possibilities and limits].

Quality control in surgery is undertaken to check on effects of preoperative risk, choice of surgical technique, use of surgical technique, and peri-operative therapy on the results of an operation. Attention is given, in this context, not only to complications but also to postoperative quality of life and prognosis, with efforts being made to quantify these latter aspects. Useful information can be obtained only by neutral data collection undertaken independent of the surgeons involved.