3 ms·
Yeah it's always seemed bizarre to me that surgical procedures aren't held to the same standard of evidence as drugs and surgeons are allowed to pretty much mak
by resoluteteeth 6y ago
Yeah it's always seemed bizarre to me that surgical procedures aren't held to the same standard of evidence as drugs and surgeons are allowed to pretty much make things up and do whatever they want as long as they don't engage in clear malpractice.
- Latty 6y ago"The same standard" as in double-blind studies would clearly present issues when it comes to surgery. I can see the argument for a higher standard than is currently held to, but "the same" seems impossible to do in an ethical way, or even just practically.
- Retric 6y agoMany double blind surgical procedures have been tested. Unless it’s limb removal you go in and either do the procedure or go in and don’t do the final setup. The ethics is interesting as surgical procedures can become common without any actual testing of effectiveness. Overall about 1/2 of surgical procedures have had double blind tests and of those about 1/2 passed the test. Which suggests something like 1/4 to 1/2 of surgery’s are ineffective.
- hamandcheese 6y agoIt doesn’t seem that unreasonable to me — bad drugs can harm people at a much larger scale than a bad doctor.
- whatshisface 6y agoThey're the same when abstracted to the level of "the practice of doing knee surgery."
- ska 6y agoDoctors are free to use drugs off label also, so that is consistent. The constraints around producers (drugs, devices) are tight, but the clinicians can do what they think is worthwhile from there.