England’s surgery purge
Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.
England’s National Health Service does not want to keep paying for many surgeries that are probably useless for many patients. The musculoskeletal “repairs” on the chopping block?
- Knee arthroscopies for osteoarthritis
- Injections for non-specific back pain
- Removal of bone spurs for shoulder pain
- Carpal tunnel syndrome release
- Dupuytren’s contracture release
- Trigger finger release
Only the carpal tunnel syndrome release is any kind of surprise to me, but it’s also not a topic I know much about. I suspect that if I’d studied CTS the way I’ve studied some of these other conditions, my surprise would quickly evaporate. As with all chronic pain, the longer things go on the better than chance that the main problem is no longer an issue in the tissue, but a lowered threshold for pain.