[Quo vadis, Chirurgia?]

After an overview of the last one and a half century of the golden age of classic surgery the author discusses the problem of specialization in general surgery. Due to the basic change of the nature of some diseases and to the development of medical and endoscopic treatment some of the routine surgical procedures have nearly disappeared: for example the partial gastrectomy in ulcer disease, the proximal gastric vagotomy itself, the transduodenal sphincterotomy, etc. This fact raises the question of education and post-graduation of young surgeons. Now the unlimited use of laparoscopic methods in abdominal surgery opens up new vistas. The recent state of art and the future is discussed, emphasizing the need of high ethical standard on the field of this entirely new surgery.