When surgery is just a stitch-up
by Dara Mohammadi from on (#2ZREX)
With evidence mounting that many minor operations owe their success to the placebo effect, is it time to call a halt to some routine procedures?
What's the difference between a homeopath and a surgeon? It's a question that sounds like a joke, and it won't have many surgeons laughing. Homeopathy is the scientifically implausible idea that diluted substances can somehow treat disease: it has never been shown to work and any effect is, at very best, a placebo effect. It's a world away from the glinting scalpels and cut-and-dried logic of surgery. See a problem, cut it out, sew it back up. Right?
Well, it is until you start looking for evidence of effectiveness for some operations, and then you're left thinking that the line between the two is not as clear as you first thought.
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