Study revives a debate on arthritis knee surgery

New York Times, September 11, 2008

A study has found that surgery is no better than more conservative treatment to relieve knee pain caused by arthritis, with 86 patients who had the operation faring no better over two years than 86 who had physical therapy and took medications to dampen inflammation. The results of the study are in line with those from a study published in 2002, and some say the new study just confirms what they already knew. Others say they hope that doctors who did not believe the 2002 study will be persuaded by the latest one to stop doing the operations.