Ebook: Surgery, the ultimate placebo: a surgeon cuts through the evidence

"In this book, you will see how commonly performed operations can be found to be useless or even harmful when properly evaluated. That these claims come from an experienced, practising orthopaedic surgeon who has performed many of these operations himself, makes the unsettling argument particularly compelling. Of course, no surgeon is recommending invasive surgery in bad faith, but Ian Harris argues that the evidence for the success for many common operations, including knee arthroscopies, back fusion and cardiac stenting, becomes accepted practice without sufficient examination. The placebo effect may be real, but is it worth the cost and the risk of harm?" -- Back of book.;The placebo effect -- The science of medicine-or lack of it -- Building the perfect placebo -- Putting surgery to the (placebo) test -- The surgical scrap heap -- Today’s placebo surgeries -- Why do we still do it? -- Surgery has a placebo effect-so what? -- What can we do about it?