Tests done every six months for the next two years showed that both groups improved, reporting less pain and stiffness and more mobility. But the patients who did not get surgery did just as well as those who got the operations, the researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

-- Rob Stein

Helena Montana wrote:

My four-year-old titanium knee, on the other hand, is working just fine!

Draesop wrote:

Procedures pay! The more procedures available to a specialty or subspecialty, the more money one makes. Cognition is not rewarded, so that thinking about and speaking with a patient is becoming a lost art.

This joins a long list of medical procedures which may have some use but are more often abused by those whom we trust to use them appropriately. The one gaining the least is the patient.

naner wrote:

I'm 43 and I had knee surgery about 7 yrs ago. I remember fighting with my doctors and my insurance company about having it since they didn't see the need for it. After the surgery was done, the surgeon told me of all the damage that my knee suffered and the amount of debris (cartilage and other stuff) that he removed. I wonder: if the surgery was done sooner, would I be in the amount of pain I'm in every day? The study will only give insurance companies more motive to deny the surgery to others. I wonder why the study was only done on older patients. What about folks my age that have knee issues?