Are you sure you want that surgery? Research finds ACL surgery provides no benefit.

Apparently physical therapy is as good a treatment as surgery in the case of a torn ACL (a common knee injury). A study published in February 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that according to findings from a randomized trial patients who received physical therapy were no different than patients who received surgery and physical therapy.

Gretchen Reynolds summarizes the study findings in the NY Times revealing that after two years: "The scores [measuring pain and function] for the surgically repaired knees had risen by 39.2 points. The scores for the more conservatively treated knees also had risen, by 39.4 points. In other words, the outcomes for the two groups were virtually identical."

As patients and family members we all want doctors to do something to fix us. Somehow the more high-tech the treatments are it seems as if we have more faith in them, even when the evidence is to the contrary. Findings like this make you wonder how many other unnecessary surgeries are becoming common. A cursory search shows that this surgery typically costs about $30,000, another reason we should be willing to take a long hard look at which surgeries actually provide a benefit to patients.