A panel of experts says that surgery does not help most patients with degenerative knee damage (arthritis) and advises against it. Knee arthroscopy is said to be one of the most common surgical procedures being performed on an estimated two million people around the world every year.
Surgery no better than exercise
Scientists including some from McMaster University in Canada state that surgery “does not, on average result in a lasting improvement in pain or function” and that further research is not likely to come to any other conclusion. They add surgery can result in “rare but important harms.”
They point to a study which shows surgery is no better than exercise therapy.
The advice is part of the British Medical Journal’s special initiative to produce “rapid and trustworthy guidance based on new evidence to help guide doctors make better decisions with their patients.”
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