11 Jul Could Knee Surgery Be Placebo (2)?!
Debridement is a surgical procedure that involves trimming of the cartilage inside the joint to ‘tidy up anything messy’. Surgeons also tend to use phrases such as ‘smoothing out rough edges’ or removal of worn cartilage.
Mechanically, smooth menisci would helpful to the ‘slide and glide’ of the articular cartilage and sub-chondral bone as well as removing the poor sounding clunking many feel and hear will help how the knee is processes by the nervous system.
Back to the study.
Every patient had diagnosed OA of the knee with an NRS pain level of 4 or more out if ten. Patients were told and had to understand the statement:
“On entering the study, I realise I may only receive the placebo surgery. I further realise this means I will not have had any surgical intervention on my knee and there would be no benefit to my knee OA”.
It is beneficial to surgeons to be as negative as possible here i.e. that a person who has had the placebo operation feel no benefit the surgery is deemed highly beneficial. It could also be argued that even if the ‘placebo’ cohort improves they still improve! Win win? They only lose if the ‘surgical intervention’ cohort feel worse after.
180 people were divided into three groups relating to three grades of OA, grade 1 being the mildest and grade 3 the most severe and then assigned one of three surgical options:
- Debridement only (59)
- Lavage only (61)
- Placebo only (60)
More to come!