🛠️ Technical Maximalism [Neurosurgery Wiki]

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.

===== 🛠️ Technical Maximalism =====

**Technical maximalism** refers to:

> The tendency to apply the **maximum available technology, tools, or surgical complexity** to a clinical problem — regardless of whether such escalation improves outcomes, reduces risk, or respects the patient's context.

==== 🧠 In Neurosurgery ====
  * Using **exoscopes, fluorescence, intraoperative MRI, tubular retractors**, and neuronavigation in every case, even when not clinically justified
  * Equating **complexity with quality**
  * Assuming that **"more tech" = "better surgery"**

> **“The lesion was small and asymptomatic, but they brought out the full armamentarium — classic case of technical maximalism.”**

==== ⚠️ Consequences ====
  * Increased operative time, cost, and risk
  * Erosion of clinical judgment
  * Over-reliance on tools instead of anatomical understanding
  * **Loss of proportionality** between intervention and benefit

==== 🔍 Related Concepts ====
  * [[decorative neurosurgery]]
  * [[clinical elegance]]
  * [[academic theater]]


**Synonyms:** surgical overengineering, gadget-driven surgery, technophilic excess

**Opposite:** Technical restraint, appropriate complexity, outcome-guided practice