[Surgical quality assurance exemplified by operative therapy of colorectal carcinoma].

Quality management of physicians' performance is supposed to guarantee optimal diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for patients. Quality control in the scope of prospective multicenter quality securing programs are based on the overall analysis of cases with selected tracer diagnoses. It serves as voluntary self-regulation for surgeons who perform an evaluation of their results in a team-based setting. Using colorectal cancer as an example, the quality management of diagnostic issues and surgical treatment are used to outline a treatment protocol for a surgical condition under quality securing aspects. We present the treatment protocol of colorectal cancer on the basis of three studies from 1985/1986, 1991/1993 and 1999. We emphasize our opinion that quality management should be addressed as an concern of the surgical profession, and not as an administrative problem.