Trials suggest many operations work little better than placebo (opens the source in a new tab)
- A wave of randomised trials is testing common operations. Antibiotics work as well as appendix removal for most patients, and spinal fusions and rotator-cuff repairs match placebo or physiotherapy.
- A 2022 analysis of 100 trials found that about two-thirds of the improvement patients feel after surgery comes from natural healing or the placebo effect of being cared for.
- Practice changes slowly: faster where surgeons are salaried, as in Britain, than where they are paid per operation, as in America.
- 2/3
- of felt benefit not from the op
- 100
- trials pooled in 2022
Why it matters Before agreeing to elective knee, back or shoulder surgery, it is worth asking your doctor what the trial evidence shows and whether physiotherapy or medicines are an option.
Other side Operations such as transplants and emergency Caesareans clearly save lives, and most procedures have not yet been tested against sham surgery at all. Missing evidence cuts both ways.