BMJ 1994;308:352-353 (5 February)

Editorials

Arthroscopy

In 1976 I made a detailed study of the random incidence and clinical cause of meniscal injuries and wrote an article in the Lancet called Unnecessary Meniscectomy.1 At that time awareness was increasing that meniscectomy was not a benign procedure. Before long diagnostic arthroscopy confirmed what orthopaedic surgeons had suspected - that too many cartilages were unnecessarily removed. Within a few years arthroscopic meniscectomy was replacing open meniscectomy as a treatment of choice. Patients came to expect day surgery and far shorter periods off work - though even in 1993 a surprising number of menisci are still removed by open arthrotomy.

Endoscopic techniques can now be used to examine and treat shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, and smaller joints*RF 2-6* and may even be used to release pressure in the carpal tunnel.7 What is the busy purchaser to make of all this provision? What is the current status of arthroscopy of . . . [Full text of this article]


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