Taurine surgery in the 21st century from glory to contempt

Bullfighting surgery has gone from being something that the surgeon presumed in all areas of his environment to being an activity frowned upon from a social point of view and included in our surgical guild. However, popular bullfighting festivities are still very frequent, with thousands of injured each year, some of them serious. Currently, health care in bullfighting festivals is immersed in a complex problem mainly due to four aspects: 1) social and professional discredit, 2) poorly paid professional activity, 3) abandonment by professional and academic institutions, and 4) lack of a specific body of doctrine. All this is leading to the health care teams in bullfighting surgery being less and less professionalized and more inexperienced, to problems of professional intrusion, and consequently is having a direct impact on the quality of care provided and on the morbidity and mortality of the injured population, with the legal implications that it entails. A restructuring of this situation and the support of professional institutions, especially Medical Associations, and academic institutions, is necessary.