Surgical research—comic opera no more

"A comic opera performance" was how Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, described surgical research in 1996 when he quoted the medical statistician Major Greenwood; at the time, the most common research method was the case series and, Horton posited, much of the research surgeons undertook was misconceived. 1 Horton R Surgical research or comic opera: questions, but few answers. Lancet. 1996; 347: 984-985 Abstract PubMed Scopus (448) Google Scholar The comment struck so deeply that the phrase is still routinely quoted in surgical meetings. What has happened to the landscape of surgical research since then and what are the current priorities for surgery?