[Warning] Popular Surgery “Completely Useless”
I don’t have anything against surgery… you know, when you REALLY need it.
But guess what?
Lots of the surgeries done in America today… especially for chronic pain conditions… don’t accomplish a darned thing.
In fact, a recent study has revealed that one of the most common types of surgery in the U.S — performed on more than 200,000 people every year — is completely USELESS.
Here’s how to avoid falling for this surgical scam.
Shoulder impingement is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain.
It occurs when the bones in the shoulder impinge on the tendons, causing pain when you reach overhead or behind your back, and causing general weakness of the shoulder muscles.
It can eventually lead to tendinitis or bursitis – and it wreaks havoc on your quality of life.
Anti-inflammatories are typically the first line of attack. When they stop working, people get steroid injections.
But when all else fails, doctors point patients toward decompression surgery. This is an arthroscopic type of surgery in which the surgeon uses a small incision to remove damaged bone tissue in order to allow for more space (and less impingement) in the shoulder.
Sounds logical, but there’s a catch.
It’s completely useless.
In a study of 189 patients with shoulder impingement, some underwent decompression surgery, while others got a placebo surgery (the doctor went in surgically to examine the joint, but didn’t perform any procedures to fix the problem).
After two years, both groups had experienced significant improvements in shoulder pain. In other words, doing NOTHING was just as effective at long-term pain relief as SURGERY.
The real rub? This wasn’t the first study to show what a sham this surgery is. Other studies had already shown that decompression surgery was no better than physiotherapy.
Despite these studies, the number of people getting these surgeries has steadily increased – to the tune of about 200,000 people a year.
That’s 200,000 people being duped by a slice-and-dice medical culture.
Don’t be one of them.
To a brighter day,
Dr. Richard Gerhauser, M.D.
