“More than 200,000 Medicare patients with back pain underwent $2 billion worth of unnecessary surgeries, including spinal fusion”
“The times in which spinal fusion and laminectomy work for spinal stenosis is when the stenosis is causing neurogenic claudication, or radicular symptoms, meaning you’re getting pain shooting down the leg”
“The answer about why Medicare pays is because Medicare doesn’t really use appropriateness criteria to decide whether to pay,”
“It’s really not terribly accepted in academic circles to operate on just back pain or discogenic disease”
“there’s been a number of studies that showed that losing weight, stopping smoking, and engaging in healthier activities is a better treatment for back pain when you don’t have a specific diagnosis, like nerve compression or deformity.”
Rosen also pointed to the heavy influence that the spine surgery equipment industry has on hospitals and surgeons. “I mean, spinal hardware is $1,000 a screw and you put in three or four levels, you can get $20,000, $30,000 of equipment put in.”
“There was also wide variation in unnecessary procedures from state to state”
#Overutilization_of_Surgery
#Low_Back_Problems_and_Sciatica
Posted to FB on 2024-11-20 10:47:10