Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
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Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#2There was a study where knee surgeons just made an incision in the skin and told the patient the procedure was done. The result was about the same rate of success, and a lot less risk of complications. I can't find a date on this article but it's at least from 2010 if not older. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=116879&page=1
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#3Appendectomy: The possibility of dying from a ruptured appendix is enough for surgeons to recommend this procedure but several studies have shown that antibiotics alone are also effective. The recurrence rate is higher with antibiotics, but the surgical complications are lower.
I can think of a reason why the recurrence rate for appendectomy is lower than for antibiotics. ;-)
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#4A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on the floor. I was nothing but meat and a paycheck.
Thankfully acupuncture has given me back the ability to sit/run/lift/stand. I'm so grateful I didn't get surgery in either case.
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#5A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on…
Acupuncture, there has been so much FUD spread about alternative medicine that I have no idea what to trust anymore. It isn't even covered by most insurance.
What is real, who to trust.
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#6A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on…
Acupuncture, there has been so much FUD spread about alternative medicine that I have no idea what to trust anymore. It isn't even covered by most insurance. What is real, who to trust.
Trust results. For some people the best medicine is guided by some change from within. I believe that as far as positive outcomes are concerned (ruling out helpful communities and other factors) the actual reason that placebos and that any organized system of belief work for some people is the same. They want to, and believe that they will, get better; thus they do, or at least they learn to cope. It's pretty much a psychological solution.
You can talk your way out of some problems; but not all problems. Some things require physical changes driven by external (alien to the self) forces.
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#7This is no limited to Australia. I know a person in Russia who consulted 3 or 4 surgeons regarding her foot problem. The advise was always to perform a complex operation that would leave her with crutches for at least 3 months.
Finally somebody recommended another doctor. His advise was to make a hole in shoe insole around problematic area and see how things go. Then 9 months later she spent a month at sea and that mostly cured the problem.
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#8A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on…
Acupuncture, there has been so much FUD spread about alternative medicine that I have no idea what to trust anymore. It isn't even covered by most insurance. What is real, who to trust.
The problem is that due to the placebo effect you will never know what is real or not. That said I would suspect that a lot of alternative medicines have therepeutic benefits. We just don't know why or how.
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#9A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on…
Acupuncture, there has been so much FUD spread about alternative medicine that I have no idea what to trust anymore. It isn't even covered by most insurance. What is real, who to trust.
I had a herniated disc - incredibly painful and it had terrible affects on my mood and my weight as well. I found that most of the effective treatments were ones that put me in a better mental state even if they had no effect on the pain. As someone else said; trust results!
Re: Confessions of a Sydney surgeon: why your operation may not work
#10A couple of years ago I slipped (herniated) two lumbar disks. Both of the surgeons I consulted begged me NOT to get surgery (one with tears in his eyes). I'm ever so grateful that there are surgeons out there who will push back. Contrast that with when I went to an orthopedic specialist about knee pain from running. In less than two minutes of consultation he told me he wanted to snip my tight IT bands. My jaw was on…
Acupuncture, there has been so much FUD spread about alternative medicine that I have no idea what to trust anymore. It isn't even covered by most insurance. What is real, who to trust.
You can look at sites like the Cochrane Collaboration or NICE.
Cochrane provide meta-analysis of various treatments. The meta review include a good summary of the paper. Here's their list of stuff about acupuncture: http://www.cochrane.org/search/site/acupuncture
NICE reviews evidence of safety and efficacy to try to decide if the English NHS should offer (and thus pay for) a treatment. Nice will sometimes say "do this", sometimes they'll say "we don't have enough evidence to say either way", and sometimes they'll say "do not do". If they recommend to not do something it's because they have plenty of evidence of harm. Here's their list of stuff about acupuncture (a lot of which is of the "do not do" recommendation): http://www.nice.org.uk/search?q=acupucture
England is also introducing "personal health budgets" for people with long term conditions. This is a small pot of money that the patient can spend pretty much how they wish (not on debt, gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or anything illegal) so long as they can persuade a panel. This could include homeopathy or acupuncture. For example: Imagine a person who is frequently and severely self-harming. (They attend emergency department every week, and they're usually admitted from ED into hospital for surgery.) This person may feel that a joining a 5-a-side soccer club and getting acupuncture would help reduce either the frequency or severity of their self harm. http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Yourchoices/personal-health... https://www.england.nhs.uk/healthbudgets/