Knee Arthroscopic Surgeries on the Decline Save
A JAMA Internal Medicine report has shown that the rate of arthroscopic surgery has significantly declined, in an era when arthroplasty and the incidence of osteoarthritis (OA) has increased. (Citation source http://bit.ly/2DtpeUp)
The analysis was undertaken as numerous studies have failed to show significant long-term benefits when arthroscopy was used to manage knee pain, meniscal tears and knee OA.
Researchers examined data on all surgeries done on patients 18 and older in Florida from 2002 to 2015.
During this era, there were a total of 868,482 arthroscopic knee procedures and an overall decline in arthroscopic operations of 23%, even moreso after 2008.
In 2002, the knee arthroscopy rate in Florida was 449 procedures per 100,000 adults. By 2015 this fell to 345 procedures per 100,000 adults. During this timespan, overall knee arthroplastly increased.
The sharper declines after 2008 follow publication of another major study that failed to show a different in outcomes between arthroscopic surgery and medical management.
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