Scroll Up Scroll Down
'Cut to the Chase – 100 Matrix Pearls for Doctors' comprises 100 chapters and the full list of chapter titles is shown below.
 
Several sample chapters are available to be downloaded in pdf file format. The following chapters can be downloaded: Introduction, chapters 3, 31, 39, 53, 79 and 88.
 
Introduction
Matrix Lesson #1
The Matrix Conference is the most important hour of the surgical week.
Matrix Lesson #2
A referral to a surgical office never generates a surgical case.
Matrix Lesson #3
Any case presented as: “See the patient when you can at your convenience” is a four-plus-flatout surgical emergency with a mortality of 98% and should be seen immediately.
Matrix Lesson #4
Never study an improving situation.
Matrix Lesson #5
A patient cannot sleep through peritonitis.
Matrix Lesson #6
Those patients seen on rounds do not need to be seen on rounds.
Matrix Lesson #7
Never allow a patient near an interventional radiologist on a Friday afternoon, at night or during a weekend.
Matrix Lesson #8
Last year's study, “reportedly normal,” is always abnormal.
Matrix Lesson #9
The scrub nurse will discuss lunch relief at the most critical juncture of the case.
Matrix Lesson #10
Never forget Silberman's rule: he who refuses a colostomy, always gets a colostomy.
Matrix Lesson #11
The incidence of small bowel obstruction increases during Passover.
Matrix Lesson #12
The patient will never buck at the right time.
Matrix Lesson #13
The thrill of avoiding a complication that has befallen the patient of a colleague insures that your patient will experience the same complication within two weeks.
Matrix Lesson #14
Never begin a comment at the Matrix Conference with “In my experience...” or “That's a research interest of mine!”
Matrix Lesson #15
Never criticize your chief resident or your partner in a group setting.
Matrix Lesson #16
The likelihood that a surgical case will remain in your office is inversely proportional to the amount of office energy expended in arranging that case.
Matrix Lesson #17
The least essential operating room supplies are always overstocked.
Matrix Lesson #18
Always listen to your haustra.
Matrix Lesson #19
The operation is over when the patient is eating a cheeseburger and can't remember your name.
Matrix Lesson #20
The slashed skin incision handled by delayed primary closure in a trauma case with a perforated colon will heal perfectly.
Matrix Lesson #21
If a patient develops a postoperative problem, consider the anatomic complications of the operation before any other vercackte diagnoses.
Matrix Lesson #22
Academic surgical discussions are allowed from 08:00 Hrs. to 18:00 Hrs.
Matrix Lesson #23
If the scrub nurses mumble during the sponge count, get a film.
Matrix Lesson #24
The intern you grill the hardest about a specific topic will have a Ph.D. in that topic.
Matrix Lesson #25
Never unfasten the brassiere of an elderly immigrant woman during evaluation of a breast problem.
Matrix Lesson #26
Never use the grammatically correct plural of pancreatitis, diverticulitis or mesenteritis.
Matrix Lesson #27
Have, at the very least, a passing acquaintance with surgical history.
Matrix Lesson #28
The patient will always be given a drug to which he is allergic.
Matrix Lesson #29
Never mumble in the operating theater.
Matrix Lesson #30
Misery will follow the surgical k'enohorah.
Matrix Lesson #31
All laparoscopic cables and tubing become intertwined, despite any attempt at logical arrangement.
Matrix Lesson #32
The case scheduled for three hours will take one hour.
Matrix Lesson #33
No-one knows the proper nomenclature for the ligaments of the spleen.
Matrix Lesson #34
If the gynecologist says it is not adnexal, it is always adnexal.
Matrix Lesson #35
A prepared presentation never gets presented.
Matrix Lesson #36
Never violate Occam's Razor.
Matrix Lesson #37
If the nurses like you, you are not doing your job.
Matrix Lesson #38
Leave your attitude outside of the operating theater.
Matrix Lesson #39
Cancel this case!
Matrix Lesson #40
Anticipation is the single greatest attribute of a premier scrub nurse.
Matrix Lesson #41
The emergency room is the best place to evaluate an emergency.
Matrix Lesson #42
Never discuss your pension plan.
Matrix Lesson #43
Never discuss the asymptomatic carotid bruit.
Matrix Lesson #44
Never refuse 07:30 Hrs. operating time.
Matrix Lesson #45
Call patients facing outpatient surgery the night before surgery and the night of surgery.
Matrix Lesson #46
The attending physician is always right.
Matrix Lesson #47
The quality of the X-ray ordered is directly proportional to the specificity of the clinical information supplied to the radiologist.
Matrix Lesson #48
There is no law that says that a colostomy must be closed.
Matrix Lesson #49
The modern-day chief of surgery functions as a C.E.O. (chief executive officer), not as a C.E.O. (chief educational officer).
Matrix Lesson #50
If you think about a colostomy, just think about a colostomy.
Matrix Lesson #51
New professors of surgery are like newly ordained ministers.
Matrix Lesson #52
Get the old records.
Matrix Lesson #53
The “senior” author had nothing to do with the article to which his name is affixed.
Matrix Lesson #54
Never refer to an operation as “just a .....”
Matrix Lesson #55
Never ask this question: “What kind of incision should we make?”
Matrix Lesson #56
Never use subjective terms in a medical history.
Matrix Lesson #57
A surgeons' lounge should reflect the demeanor of the surgeons who use it.
Matrix Lesson #58
Use as much surgical Yiddish as possible.
Matrix Lesson #59
The progress notes are for the patient's problems, not for the doctor's problems.
 
Matrix Lesson #60
Master the techniques for local anesthesia.
Matrix Lesson #61
Never ask this question: “Should you remove the appendix?”
Matrix Lesson #62
Never say: “That's a board question!”
Matrix Lesson #63
A resident educates himself.
Matrix Lesson #64
Never say: “We were dry when we closed.”
Matrix Lesson #65
Never refer to a patient as an organ or as an operation.
Matrix Lesson #66
Keep a surgical notebook.
Matrix Lesson #67
The first rule of the operating room visitor is: get permission from the operating surgeon before speaking.
Matrix Lesson #68
The scrub suit is the garment of enlightenment.
Matrix Lesson #69
A $500 fine or six months in jail for every exclamation point or question mark found in the progress notes.
Matrix Lesson #70
Beware the accent.
Matrix Lesson #71
Resident involvement in an operation is earned.
Matrix Lesson #72
Learn the art of taxis.
Matrix Lesson #73
Study and master accordionology or take the colonoscopic estimate of a lesion’s location with a 6kg grain of salt.
Matrix Lesson #74
Nobody wants to be Scrooge.
Matrix Lesson #75
Understand, study, analyze, appreciate and beware surgical hubris.
 
Matrix Lesson #76
The patient you want to remain at rest will be rolled, cajoled and patrolled.

Matrix Lesson #77
Full-time departments of surgery increase exponentially, independent of the economic climate in which they exist.
Matrix Lesson #78
Learn to detort a sigmoid volvulus.
Matrix Lesson #79
Never answer an unattended, ringing medical center telephone.
Matrix Lesson #80
Never take the fall for a consultant's error.
Matrix Lesson #81
Use humor judiciously.
Matrix Lesson #82
Do not create pathology in an attempt to define pathology.
Matrix Lesson #83
Master the art of the postoperative family meeting.
Matrix Lesson #84
When all else fails, order a physical exam.
Matrix Lesson #85
Forget the CV. Discover the CV.
Matrix Lesson #86
Double-headers are for ballgames.
Matrix Lesson #87
Collect, read, study and master every surgical clinico-pathologic case published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Matrix Lesson #88
Learn the art of sitting.
Matrix Lesson #89
Learn diagnostic restraint.
Matrix Lesson #90
Never say: “Never let the sun rise nor set on a small bowel obstruction.”
Matrix Lesson #91
The last doctor is always the smartest doctor.
Matrix Lesson #92
Consider the shtick that accompanies the test.
Matrix Lesson #93
Beware the “senior surgeon.”
Matrix Lesson #94
When common sense interferes with a protocol, follow common sense.
Matrix Lesson #95
They can always hit you harder.
Matrix Lesson #96
Never be afraid to cry uncle.
Matrix Lesson #97
Be familiar with the civil justice system.
Matrix Lesson #98
Beware the AM admit!
Matrix Lesson #99
Master the three As of a successful medical practice.
Matrix Lesson #100
Never ask the following questions: “Would you drain it?” “Should you drain it?” “Did you drain it?”

Home Chapters Matrix Program The Author Reviews Order