Over a million people each year get pointless surgery

Over a million people each year get pointless surgery
(Image credit: iStock)

Placebos are important. It's how science determines whether medical treatments are inherently beneficial. And for drug research, it's easy — you just use a sugar pill, or something with a harmless side effect. But what about surgery? That's trickier, but still doable. Surgeons just make an incision, then fiddle around for awhile like they're performing an operation, then close it up.

It's called sham surgery, and it works as a surgical placebo. It's ethically complicated, so there haven't been that many placebo-controlled studies of surgical procedures. But those few studies have shocking results. Consider: each year more than 500,000 Americans get arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee, and 700,000 get similar procedures for meniscal tears.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.