Comments on: Minimally invasive spine surgery becoming technology-enabled http://mediligence.com/blog/2009/08/25/minimally-invasive-spine-surgery-becoming-technology-enabled/ insights, perspectives and inside data from the founder of MMD Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:01:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: pdriscoll http://mediligence.com/blog/2009/08/25/minimally-invasive-spine-surgery-becoming-technology-enabled/comment-page-1/#comment-3631 pdriscoll Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:12:32 +0000 http://mediligence.com/blog/?p=1821#comment-3631 Indeed. I was still in the process of adding the exhibit from our prior spine surgery report and had not yet had a chance to add the footnote to the vertebroplasty data. Your comment beat me to it! <br><br>It is indeed striking that the procedure has apparently shown no advantage whatsover compared to controls. It perhaps speaks to the invasiveness of spine surgery, the associated trauma and the chronic pain issue of spine problems that a minimally invasive procedure gained a position without having the data to support an actual advantage over alternatives (or nothing at all). Indeed. I was still in the process of adding the exhibit from our prior spine surgery report and had not yet had a chance to add the footnote to the vertebroplasty data. Your comment beat me to it!

It is indeed striking that the procedure has apparently shown no advantage whatsover compared to controls. It perhaps speaks to the invasiveness of spine surgery, the associated trauma and the chronic pain issue of spine problems that a minimally invasive procedure gained a position without having the data to support an actual advantage over alternatives (or nothing at all).

]]> By: medical http://mediligence.com/blog/2009/08/25/minimally-invasive-spine-surgery-becoming-technology-enabled/comment-page-1/#comment-3630 medical Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:38:16 +0000 http://mediligence.com/blog/?p=1821#comment-3630 Looks like Vertebroplasty just got blasted by the New England Journal of Medicine. They tested vertebroplasty in a far more rigorous way. They randomly assigned patients to get either vertebroplasty or a fake procedure in which patients were injected with local anesthetic but no cement. Researchers followed patients for a few months to see if there was any difference in pain or functioning. Guess what? "People who got a fake procedure did just as well as people who got the real thing".<br><br>Sometimes the shortest route is not the best route.<br><br>James Monroe Looks like Vertebroplasty just got blasted by the New England Journal of Medicine. They tested vertebroplasty in a far more rigorous way. They randomly assigned patients to get either vertebroplasty or a fake procedure in which patients were injected with local anesthetic but no cement. Researchers followed patients for a few months to see if there was any difference in pain or functioning. Guess what? “People who got a fake procedure did just as well as people who got the real thing”.

Sometimes the shortest route is not the best route.

James Monroe

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