This post contains a link to the Reuters‘ article, Fewer US Adults Getting Unnecessary Knee Surgery, from Medscape. See Resources after the post for more on the topic. Here are excerpts from the news report:
(Reuters Health) – Arthroscopic knee surgery is being done less often in adults with torn cartilage or painful arthritis, as a growing body of evidence shows little benefit from these operations, a U.S. study suggests.
Multiple studies have shown that knee arthroscopy isn’t any better than non-operative treatments for conditions like arthritis, torn cartilage and knee pain, Howard noted September 24 online in JAMA Internal Medicine. But evidence to date hasn’t offered a clear picture of how much doctors and patients are avoiding the operations as a result.
There are still, however, far too many operations being done on patients who may not benefit and may be harmed instead, said Jonas Bloch Thorlund, a researcher at the University of Southern Denmark who wasn’t involved in the study.
“There is still room for improvement,” Thorlund said by email.
The above article led me to review my past posts related to the knee and to create the post My Minicourse On Kee Injury and Knee Pain [coming soon – today, I hope]. In this post I list my knee posts and review each one. I start with the most recent and work backward.
It is especially important to review Arthroscopic surgery for degenerative knee arthritis and meniscal tears: a clinical practice guideline [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text HTML] [Full Text PDF]. BMJ. 2017 May 10;357:j1982. doi: 10.1136/bmj.j1982. Here are excerpts from this article:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW [from the above article]
• We make a strong recommendation against the use of arthroscopy in nearly all patients with degenerative knee disease, based on linked systematic reviews; further research is
unlikely to alter this recommendation
• This recommendation applies to patients with or without imaging evidence of osteoarthritis, mechanical symptoms, or sudden symptom onset.
• Healthcare administrators and funders may use the number of arthroscopies performed in patients with degenerative knee disease as an indicator of quality care.
• Knee arthroscopy is the most common orthopaedic procedure in countries with available data
• This Rapid Recommendation package was triggered by a randomised controlled trial published in The BMJ in June 2016
which found that, among patients with a degenerative medial meniscus tear, knee arthroscopy was no better than exercise therapy.
Resources
(1) Arthroscopic surgery for degenerative knee arthritis and meniscal tears: a clinical practice guideline [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text HTML] [Full Text PDF]. BMJ. 2017 May 10;357:j1982. doi: 10.1136/bmj.j1982.
