Labos: How new data cast doubt on an old surgery |
In medicine, many treatments that seem logical and plausible don’t end up working when tested in patients. That almost counterintuitive fact is what spawned the evidence-based medicine movement of the 1990s. It was only in the past 30 years that we systematically started testing whether something did work rather than simply assuming that it should work.
Case in point, surgically removing or trimming back a torn meniscus seems to make a ton of sense. But when it was ultimately tested in a randomized controlled trial, it had no benefit.
The meniscus is a crescent shaped piece of cartilage in your knee that serves as a sort of shock absorber for the joint. It can be damaged with twisting motions but can also degenerate without any acute trauma. The pain caused by meniscal tears may be hard to differentiate from arthritis pain or a torn ACL, and nothing stops both problems from existing simultaneously in the same patient.
Back in the day, meniscectomies were very common.........