Elective surgery

Elective surgery is an operation that is elected to be performed by patient and surgeon, as a matter of choice. Unlike emergency surgery, in which the immediate threat of bodily harm without the rapid performance of surgery is so overwhelming that no reasonable health care provider or facility would deny surgical treatment, elective surgery proceeds only at the request of the patient or the patient's advocate.

Depending on patient circumstances, the very same procedure might be considered elective surgery in one case and emergency surgery in another.

In Medicine, the difference between elective and emergency surgery is important, because the associated risks and the underlying assumptions involved in the provision of each are separate.