The spin begins: ‘You may not be better off after knee surgery’

Why this post today? Because this is the beginning of the propaganda machine starting to tell us to “just take the pain pill.” Based on 146 patients, the “death panel” or rationing board will use this to deny this surgery. Orthopedics is high on the list of reimbursement cuts planned by Obama.

(CNN) — Patients who underwent simulated knee surgery fared just as well as those who got the real deal, according to a new study that’s raising eyebrows about the most common orthopedic procedure performed in the United States.

Recall?

Jane asks the President if her 100 year old mother (now 105) would have gotten a pacemaker under his plan. Well now that’s a tough one … that costs a lot and maybe we will have to say, just take a pill. Priceless.

The findings, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, add to a string of papers suggesting that arthroscopic partial meniscectomy fails to help many patients. The operation typically is performed to relieve knee pain, whether from wear or from an injury.

But other doctors say it’s still too soon to draw sweeping conclusions.

The study, which was conducted in Finland, followed 146 patients between the ages of 35 and 65 with symptoms of degenerative wear and tear of the meniscus, a disk-shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber between the shinbone and thighbone. They had no detectable arthritis, suggesting that any pain was due to a problem with the meniscus.

More and video over at CNN