Why ‘Useless’ Surgery Is Still PopularAugust 3, 2016 |
The expectation is that medical practice will change if an operation turns out not to help.
If only.
It looks as if the onus is on patients to ask what evidence, if any, shows that surgery is better than other options.
Take what happened with spinal fusion, an operation that welds together adjacent vertebrae to relieve back pain from worn-out discs. Unlike most operations, it actually was tested in four clinical trials. The conclusion: Surgery was no better than alternative nonsurgical treatments, like supervised exercise and therapy to help patients deal with their fear of back pain. In both groups, the pain usually diminished or went away.
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Tags: bioethics, consent, data, docs, evidence, outcome, patients, surgery, useless
