Considering bone or joint surgery? In many cases, surgery may be no more effective than options like exercise, physical therapy and drug treatments.
Hip and knee replacements, surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome and other orthopedic procedures are among the most common elective surgeries performed today, but they involve cost, risk and sometimes weeks or months of recovery. Many of these surgeries are not supported by evidence from randomized trials, a review found. Even when surgery has been shown to be effective, the review concluded, it may not be significantly better than nonsurgical care.