Knee problems are a common marker of aging, and knee surgery to fix them is equally common. According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), you have to wonder why. As summarized in the New York Times, “A popular surgical procedure worked no better than fake operations in helping….
Continue ReadingOrthopedics & Sports Medicine
Orthopedic Treatments You Should Reject
Sometimes, routine is not in a patient’s best interest. As described in a story on NPR, doctors accustomed to prescribing certain treatments for bones and joints don’t always revise their practices when scientific evidence calls for doing things differently from how they used to. In terms of orthopedists – doctors who specialize in the musculoskeletal….
Continue ReadingMedical Tourism: An Update with Eye-Popping Numbers
We’ve heard of traveling to Mexico or India for saving big bucks on expensive surgery, but now “medical tourism” is a realistic option for travel to Europe and other “first world” places too, with similar big savings. The issue this highlights is not just pinching pennies, but why is American medical care so expensive, with….
Continue ReadingWhen “Peer Review” Has Ulterior Motives
A federal judge this week upheld a jury verdict against the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, finding sufficient evidence for the jury’s decision that the AAOS acted with “reckless disregard for the truth” in publicizing its discipline of an orthopedic surgeon who had testified that another surgeon had committed malpractice. The decision was written by….
Continue ReadingMRIs for Sports Injuries Can Lead to Overtreatment
It’s natural to want an X-ray or MRI or some other kind of scan when you’ve had an injury that’s so painful it hurts to use the involved body part. But many orthopedic surgeons are starting to speak out against the overuse of MRI scans in particular. They say it leads to over-diagnosis of injury….
Continue ReadingP.R.P. Injections for Sports Injuries: Proven Effective Only in Lightening the Wallet
Platelet-Rich Plasma injections are the latest treatment fad in sports medicine. Celebrity athletes like Tiger Woods and NFL player Hines Ward swear that P.R.P injections helped them miraculously recover from torn ligaments, and now regular patients are pressing their orthopedic surgeons to try the same thing. There’s just one question: Do they work? And the….
Continue Reading