Recommendations of «not-to-do»: Proposals of the Spanish Association of Surgeons to the project «Commitment to quality of scientific societies».

INTRODUCTION: The initiative of the Spanish Ministry of Health «Commitment to quality of scientific societies», aims to reduce unnecessary interventions of healthcare professionals.

METHODS: The Spanish Association of Surgeons has selected 22 experts from the different sections that have participated in the identification of 26 proposals «do not do» to be ordered by the expected impact its implementation would have according to the GRADE methodology. From these proposals, the Delphi technique was used to select 5 recommendations presented in more detail in this article.

RESULTS: The 5 selected recommendations are: Do not perform cholecystectomy in patients with asymptomatic cholelithiasis; do not keep bladder catheterization more than 48hours; do not extend antibiotic prophylaxis treatments more than 24hours after a surgical procedure; do not perform routine antibiotic prophylaxis for uncomplicated clean and no prosthetic surgery; and do not use antibiotics postoperatively after uncomplicated appendicitis.

CONCLUSION: The Spanish Association of Surgeons's participation in this campaign has allowed a reflection on those activities that do not add value in the field of surgery and it is expected that the spread of this process serves to reduce its performance.