Unnecessary surgery

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Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer Shannon Brownlee See book keywords and concepts

When several doctors with a particular subspecialty live in a particular region, he says, and they happen to be aggressive, then a lot of unnecessary surgery will be performed, as in Lewiston, Maine, where there were unneeded hysterectomies, and Morrisville, Vermont, where doctors were doing countless tonsillectomies. In other words, he says, the supply of physicians can determine how much surgery is performed, rather than how much surgery patients actually need.

Time Magazine noted that medicine's new "wondrous machines" were expensive, but in the end they would save billions of dollars by eliminating unnecessary surgery and catching diseases early, when they were easier to treat. Newsweek hailed the new imaging technologies for their ability to render the human body "almost as transparent as a jellyfish." Today's CT scanners, along with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and PET (positron-emission tomography), truly are wondrous machines that have made the diagnosis of many conditions far faster and simpler for physicians, and less risky for patients.

You couldn't say anything to the back surgeon, even though he was doing unnecessary surgery. Nobody wanted to be utilization reviewer because it meant you had to talk to your peers. These doctors did not want to be told what to do. It was worse than telling your three-year-old what to do." Utilization review was an idea managed care had borrowed from traditional HMOs, which routinely monitored the performance of individual doctors, groups of doctors, and entire hospitals.

The Secret History of the War on Cancer Devra Davis See book keywords and concepts

These delays led to unnecessary surgery or death for millions of women. • Some of the first modern studies on workplace causes of cancer, the dangers of medical and environmental hormones, and the cancer-causing properties of tobacco were carried out and published by scientists around 1936, including many who worked in Nazi Germany. In June 1945, Robert R. Kehoe, an Army captain who was a member of the Office of Strategic Services, traveled throughout Germany gathering information on chemical and hormonal hazards for the U.S. Army Field Investigations Unit and the British Secret Service.

How could mammography lead to unnecessary surgery? Ductal carcinoma in situ is a common lesion that is believed not to become a cancer in many cases. It has become four times more common in recent years, largely, but not entirely, because of increased mammo-graphic screening. When it is found nowadays, DCIS is removed surgically, often with a procedure that leaves the breast intact but not without scars, and sometimes with loss of feeling in the nipple. Some young women with DCIS choose to have both breasts removed as a precaution.

What If Medicine Disappeared? Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea See book keywords and concepts

What is interesting to us is that lawyers, not doctors, came to decide what was meant by "unnecessary surgery." Some analysts advocate neither the physician, nor the lawyer, but rather that the determination of "unnecessary" be made "by the final arbiter of all surgical procedures, the patient."38 According to a medical economist, the determination should be made by a "fully informed consumer" who calculates "patient costs and benefits."39 For us, the notion of a fully informed patient is sociologically naive.

One in ten mammograms give a false positive result, which leads not only to considerable expense, but also to biopsy and psychological trauma—and even to unnecessary surgery. Fecal blood exam can detect colon cancer, but also produces significant false positives; recommended yearly exams from age 50 to 75 would produce false positives in half of all patients. Various benign conditions of the prostate also produce false PSA positives, leading to considerable anxiety.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, "unnecessary surgery" was defined as criminal behavior.36 In the 1960s and 1970s, the concept became a product of malpractice case law, with assistance from consumer and women's health care social movements. Litigants were winning lawsuits against physicians for surgical procedures that were deemed by a jury to be needless.

In the final analysis, it cannot be the patient who has the major responsibility to prevent unnecessary surgery. More recently, some have attempted to distinguish "appropriate" from "inappropriate surgery." According to the RAND Corporation, appropriate surgery is one in which the expected health benefits of doing a procedure (i.e, increased life expectancy, relief of pain, reduction of anxiety, improved functional capacity) exceed the expected negative consequences (i.e., mortality, morbidity, time lost from work) by a sufficiently wide margin that the procedure [is] worth doing.

Writing about unnecessary surgery reminds me of my tonsillectomy. Proust was right. When nothing else subsists from the past, the smell and taste of things gain entry "into the immense edifice of memory." It was a long time ago, but what I remember so vividly about my tonsillectomy is the smell of the ether. "Just take a deep breath," the surgeon intoned. It was my first disobedient act against the medical community. I held my breath for all I was worth. But within seconds I understood the terrible truth: I had lost. I inhaled the dreadful stuff. Then falling, falling...

So 'unnecessary surgery' cannot be defined," said Fran, "without at the same time facing a subversive idea." "Right," I replied, "to define 'unnecessary,' you must first define 'necessary surgery.'" I watched as she finished kneading. The glistening dough would double in size over the next two hours. I was already getting hungry. A moment passed. "That's a concept that would make the physician uncomfortable," she said. "Indeed. Because it raises the efficacy issue for any and every surgical procedure routine as well as experimental.

Medical journal reveals that 70 percent of drug decision-making panel members have financial ties to industry Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

You have to say no to unnecessary surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. You must get outside this corrupt system and move on to something that actually promotes healing like naturopathic medicine, nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy or massage therapy. These are the areas of medicine in which you can experience and discover lasting human health. Don't be a financial slave to drug companies that are only interested in turning your body into a profit center.

The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders John E. Sarno, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Occasionally, the result has been unnecessary surgery. An example: the patient was a woman who had been successfully treated previously for back pain. She called and said that pain in the right shoulder had been diagnosed as a torn rotator cuff; surgery was performed, with relief of the pain (excellent placebo). When the same pain began in the opposite shoulder a few weeks later her suspicion was aroused; she called and asked if it could be TMS.

Positive health trends accelerated by consumer education and champions of health freedom Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Stop spending money with companies that are harming your health like junk food manufacturers, chain restaurants, and of course, pharmaceutical companies and surgeons who promote unnecessary surgery. Spend your money wisely. Vote with your dollars, and you can participate in this change in consumer awareness and consumer demand that will ultimately lead us to a healthier, happier and more intelligent civilization in the years ahead. That's my outlook for 2006.

Death by Medicine Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD. See book keywords and concepts

Researchers performed a very similar analysis, using the 1974 'unnecessary surgery percentage' of 17.6, on back surgery. In 1995, researchers testifying before the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that of 250,000 back surgeries in the U.S. at a hospital cost of $11,000 per patient, the total number of unnecessary back surgeries each year in the U.S. could approach 44,000, costing as much as $484 million.75 The unnecessary surgery figures are escalating just as prescription drugs driven by television advertising.

It's very difficult to obtain accurate statistics when studying unnecessary surgery. Dr. Leape in 1989 wrote that perhaps 30% of controversial surgeries are unnecessary. Controversial surgeries include Cesarean section, tonsillectomy, appendectomy, hysterectomy, gastrectomy for obesity, breast implants, and elective breast implants.74 Almost thirty years ago, in 1974, the Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce held hearings on unnecessary surgery. They found that 17.6% of recommendations for surgery were not confirmed by a second opinion.

Prescription for Dietary Wellness: Using Foods to Heal Phyllis A. Balch, CNC See book keywords and concepts

Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health reported other ways in which the conventional health-care system in the United States contributes to poor health, including: • 12,000 deaths per year due to unnecessary surgery. • 7,000 deaths per year due to medication errors in hospitals. • 20,000 deaths per year from hospital errors. • 80,000 deaths per year due to infections in hospitals. • 106,000 deaths per year due to nonerror, negative effects of drugs. Antibiotic use (and, especially, overuse) is creating another threat to public health in this country.

Death by Medicine Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD. See book keywords and concepts

The unnecessary surgery figures are escalating just as prescription drugs driven by television advertising. Media-driven surgery such as gastric bypass for obesity "modeled' by Hollywood personalities seduces obese people to think this route is safe and sexy. There is even a problem of surgery being advertised on the Internet.76 A study in Spain declares that between 20 and 25% of total surgical practice represents unnecessary operations.

Almost thirty years ago, in 1974, the Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce held hearings on unnecessary surgery. They found that 17.6% of recommendations for surgery were not confirmed by a second opinion. The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations extrapolated these figures and estimated that, on a nationwide basis, there were 2.4 million unnecessary surgeries performed annually, resulting in 11,900 deaths at an annual cost of $3.9 billion.73 In 2001, the top 50 medical and surgical procedures totaled approximately 41.8 million.

Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About Kevin Trudeau See book keywords and concepts

Things like unnecessary surgery, medical errors, negative effects of drugs, etc., cause almost as many deaths as heart disease and cancer. Over 250,000 people in America alone die each year from physicians' activity or therapy. These account only for the deaths; they do not include people who are permanently maimed, injured, or develop serious other medical conditions due to drugs and surgical procedures.

Ultraprevention : The 6-Week Plan That Will Make You Healthy for Life Mark Hyman, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Bypasses are the single most commonly performed unnecessary surgery in the country. Only two groups have been shown to benefit from bypass surgery: one, those whose arteries are so badly clogged that the heart can no longer beat adequately, and two, those with severe blockage in the main artery to the heart and signs of resulting poor blood flow. MYTH 3: DRUGS CURE DISEASE Both of us still see children now and then (and Mark Liponis's wife is a pediatrician), so we try to keep on top of current events in pediatrics. The story we hear most often concerns children's ear infections.

Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About Kevin Trudeau See book keywords and concepts

Secondly, he has probably been given huge cash incentives from the drug companies to prescribe drugs, or he needs to make a payment on his yacht and needs the money that he will get from the insurance company or the government by performing the unnecessary surgery. Please pay attention to this because this is exactly how doctors operate. This is the insider's secret that they don't want you to know.

The Natural Way to Heal: 65 Ways to Create Superior Health Walter Last See book keywords and concepts

Gould says doctors poison their patients with drugs and rays and mutilate them with unnecessary surgery in a desperate attempt to treat the untreatable. Since the early 1970s when President Nixon declared the War on Cancer, two trillion dollars have been spent on conventional cancer treatment and research, with the result that more Americans are dying of cancer than ever before.

When Healing Becomes A Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies Kenny Ausubel See book keywords and concepts

The amount of unnecessary surgery is high. As early as 1953, Dr. Paul Hawley, director of the American College of Surgeons, stated matter-of-factly in an interview in U.S. News and World Report, "You'd be shocked, I think—we are—at the amount of unnecessary surgery that is performed." The reason, according to Hawley? "Money."26 "In the United States today," Moss wrote in The Cancer Industry, "the direction of cancer management appears to be shaped by those forces financially interested in the outcome of the problem.

Intelligent Medicine: A Guide to Optimizing Health and Preventing Illness for the Baby-Boomer Generation Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

In my view, conventional practice suffers from overtesting in several areas — testing that gives us no therapeutically useful information or that may lead us further and further down a path toward unnecessary surgery or medication. Doctors always look for the "normal" response to a test —and there is such a variation between individual physiologies that in many cases "normal" doesn't mean very much. At the same time that many tests are overprescribed, there are some quite useful, inexpensive tests that aren't done often enough. Let's look at some examples of each.

How to Get Out of the Hospital Alive: A Guide to Patient Power Sheldon P. Blau, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.R. and Elaine Fantle Shimberg See book keywords and concepts

Hysterectomies, which were frequently performed in the nineteenth century supposedly to prevent women from suffering from depression and/or hysteria, are still among the most common types of unnecessary surgery. Nearly half of all hysterectomies performed in the United States are medically unnecessary. According to the People's Medical Society, in 1970 one in twenty babies was delivered by Cesarean section rather than normal vaginal childbirth. Today, one in four babies is delivered by Cesarean section. (Interestingly, both surgeries are performed on women.

The Medical Racket Martin L. Cross See book keywords and concepts

The answer, of course, is that the C-section is caught up in the epidemic of unnecessary surgery that plagues American medicine and assaults every organ of its often hapless patients. Each year, like our nurse, 25 million Americans go under the knife, fully confident that their surgeons are following one of the most important medical credos—Pri-mutn Non Nocere, or, "First Do No Harm." Every patient is made to believe that his surgery is necessary, the risks acceptable, and the exorbitant costs fully justified. Unfortunately for millions each year, this may not be the case.

If a surgeon, is he prone to unnecessary surgery, either because of ignorance or to line his pocket? • Has he been charged, or admitted, or convicted of drug abuse or alcoholism? • Has his license to practice medicine ever been suspended? And for how long? And in your state or elsewhere? The fear of being charged with a violation is so frightening to doctors that the profession usually closes ranks when one of their own is being threatened. That's when the code of silence comes into play, often to the great detriment—even professional ruin—of anyone who would blow the whistle on an offender.

Prescription Medicines, Side Effects and Natural Alternatives American Medical Publishing See book keywords and concepts

Avoiding an unnecessary surgery could save your life and save you thousands of dollars! It's worth the time to get a second opinion. CHAPTER 11 THE TOP 50 PRESCRIPTION DRUGS Here you will find the Top 50 drugs prescribed in the United States today, based on number of prescriptions given. We will look at them one at a time, describe their purpose, talk briefly about their potential dangers, and suggest alternatives. IMPORTANT NOTE: Never stop taking or alter your current usage of prescription drugs without consulting your doctor first.

The Medical Racket Martin L. Cross See book keywords and concepts

It showed that in some communities, doctors use procedures excessively, as with unnecessary surgery, while in others there was too little medical intervention for the sick. The statistical work showed that the chances of the results being due to chance were in the order of 1,000 to one, not the kind of odds that will make you money in Las Vegas. What did they learn? • Coronary bypass operations per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries varied from a low of seven to a high of twenty-three according to location.

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