The New york Times issue on July 11, 2002 stated that arthroscopic surgery on the knee for the symptoms due to osteoarthritis is performed on over 200,000 middle-aged and older Americans each year at a cost of more than a billion dollars to Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs and private insurers. When medical conservative treatment doesn’t help osteoarthritic knee pain, procedures such as arthroscopic lavage or debridement are highly often used to help those that are suffering from pain. Over 650,000 such procedures are performed, the cost of the procedure is $5,000 per year. It is more often more people search for alternative therapies such as physical therapy and chiropractic care, this research has much importance. Some of the latest treatment options are found at New Century Spine Centers in San Diego, CA.

The New England Journal of Medicine also reported in a research study on the results of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of arthroscopy for osteoarthritis of the knee. 180 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee were randomly assigned to receive arthroscopic debridement, arthroscopic lavage or placebo surgery. The placebo group received a short-acting intravenous tranquilizer while the surgical group received the standard general anesthesia to help simulate the surgery. The patients that received the placebo were kept in the operating room for the same amount of time as the surgical patients, and stayed over night after the procedure in the hospital and was also being cared for by nurses who “were highly unaware of the treatment-group assignment.” The placebo group just received only small skin incisions and underwent a simulated arthroscopic surgery but the arthroscope was never inserted. The patients in the research study were informed that they might not receive actual surgery so they weren’t sure of what they were going to receive.

The patients who received the same medical walking aids, graduated exercise and analgesics. For placebo patients, during the “procedure” the surgeon asked for all the medical instruments and manipulated the knee as if arthroscopy was being performed on the patients. The saline was also splashed to simulate the sounds of lavage in case the patient was partly conscious. The patients were lavaged with at least 10 liters of fluid to flush and cleanse the knee of all the painful debris and inflammatory enzymes. The torn portion of meniscus were removed, and the remains of the meniscus was smoothed to a solid, stable rim. Rough articular cartilage was shaved, loose debris was removed, and all bone spurs on the tibial spine that blocked full extension were also shaved smooth.

Only one particular doctor was used for the surgery, who didn’t know the procedure until he opened an envelope at the time of the surgery. The surgeon was board-certified and trained in arthroscopy and sports medicine in practice for ten years in an academic medical center. He was a very well trained physician for the men’s and women’s U.S. Olympic basketball teams in 1996 on a regular basis during and after the procedure.

The patients were assessed regularly during and after the procedure. The authors of the research study also determined whether there may have been some clinically important benefits they were not able to recognized in the surgical group due to their small sample size. This had to be taken into account. For comparisons they questioned the 95% confidence intervals didn’t contain any important differences, indicating that it wasn’t a clinically important improvement and the study had simply failed to detect. The Conclusion of the study was the outcomes after arthroscopic lavage or arthroscopic debridement were no better or that much different than those after a placebo procedure.

A large variety of people you suffer from that particular pain, are looking for new and better types therapies for their knee issues, sports injuries, and back pain. New Century Spine Centers in San Diego California regularly treat car accident injuries, sports injuries and back problems. Some common injuries are meniscus injuries, tears, sports injuries, muscle spasms, sciatica, degeneration of the disc and more. The newest treatments options include chiropractic advanced treatment, active release therapy, cold laser therapy, activator methods, palmer technique, spinal decompression and chiropractic care by chiropractor doctors.

Learn more about chiropractors in San Diego. Request a free DVD where you can discover all about cold laser therapy and what it can do for you.