Unnecessary Surgery Epidemic

Doctors Perform Thousands of Unnecessary Surgeries: Are You Getting One of Them?

By Dr. Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • According to a USA Today review of government records and medical databases, tens of thousands of patients undergo unnecessary surgery each and every year
  • Among the most commonly performed unnecessary surgeries are cardiac angioplasties, pacemakers, back surgery, knee and hip surgeries, hysterectomy and Cesarean sections
  • Diagnostic errors are also problematic and may account for the permanent injury or death of up to 160,000 US patients each year
  • If you’re having an elective medical procedure done always get a second opinion—and possibly a third and fourth

If your physician tells you that you need surgery, unless it is an emergency, I would strongly recommend to get a second opinion first.

In many cases, you may find that you don’t need surgery after all, saving not only a considerable amount of money but also avoiding the potentially deadly risks that any surgery carries.

In fact, according to a new USA Today review of government records and medical databases, tens of thousands of patients undergo unnecessary surgery each and every year!1 And according to some experts, that number may actually be in the millions. According to USA Today:

‘It’s a very serious issue, (and) there really hasn’t been a movement to address it,’ says Lucian Leape, a former surgeon and professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Leape, a renowned patient safety expert…

He began studying unnecessary surgery after a 1974 congressional report estimated that there were 2.4 million cases a year, killing nearly 12,000 patients. Leape’s take today? “Things haven’t changed very much.’”

to read more, go to:    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/10/unnecessary-surgeries.aspx?e_cid=20130710_DNL_art_2&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art2&utm_campaign=20130710