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A trial into surgical treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee came up with good news and bad news. The operation was no better than fake surgery, but it speaks volumes for the power of the placebo effect. A recent trial into surgical treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee has come up with good news and bad news. The bad news is that arthroscopic (keyhole) surgery for this common form of arthritis, doesn't work. The good news is that it's turned up fascinating information about the placebo effect, which could be used for the benefit of us all. The operations tested were knee arthroscopy with either just washing out the joint fluid, or washing out the fluid plus sanding down the arthritic knee cartilage. There was a placebo group who just had a general anaesthetic and cuts made in their knee but nothing else done. The people were followed for up to two years and there was no benefit from the operations. In fact those who'd had the so-called debridement (the 'sanding' if you like) tended to be worse off. But they did find that the people who came out best of all were those who'd had the strongest belief that the procedure was going to help them. This was probably the result of an almost universal trait among orthopaedic surgeons — to have absolute, unshakeable confidence in their skills. The researchers are now trying to bottle that to see whether it can make effective therapies even more so.
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