Home > Encyclopedia of Surgery > Second-Look Surgery

Definition

Second-look surgery is performed after a procedure or course of treatment to determine if the patient is free of disease. If disease is found, additional procedures may or may not be performed at the time of second-look surgery.

Purpose

Second-look surgery may be performed under numerous circumstances on patients with various medical conditions.

Cancer

A second-look procedure is sometimes performed to determine if a cancer patient has responded successfully to a particular treatment. Examples of cancers that are assessed during second-look surgery are ovarian cancer and colorectal cancer. In many cases, before a round of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy is started, a patient will undergo a...