Common Knee Surgery Doesn't Help Older Adults

A study published in JAMA Surgery found the arthroscopic partial meniscectomy procedure to excise damaged cartilage in the knee offers little to ease pain or improve mobility in older men and women, reports Reuters . Nevertheless, more than 12,000 surgeons conducted nearly 122,000 such procedures for Medicare beneficiaries in 2015. "This study shows that it remains extremely common in seniors," says Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Professor Martin Makary. "However, its benefit is limited to a small subset ... who are usually younger." The study also determined about 66 percent of the operations involved this procedure alone, irrespective of whether surgeons conducted a low or high volume of knee operations. Thirteen percent of high-volume surgeons never performed additional repair work when they conducted arthroscopic partial meniscectomies, and 7 percent never performed this surgery on its own. The researchers suggest the possibility that some doctors and seniors are as yet unaware of recent randomized controlled experiments that reveal a lack of benefit to arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. "Despite evidence, there is still a very strong belief by many surgeons and seniors that the surgery is effective," notes Jonas Bloch Thorlund from the University of Southern Denmark.