Considering Arthroscopic Surgery for Your Degenerative Knee Disease?

According to the most recent recommendations published in BMJ it seems that your answer should be,"No." The exceptions are young patients with sports-related injuries, patients with major trauma, and those with a true locked knee. This is a huge concern as according to the article 25% of people 50+ years old have degenerative knee disease. 

While a health care provider may be an expert on this procedure and may have been doing it for years...the time has come to rethink when to do it or have it done. The evidence is that in most cases arthroscopic surgery for degenerative knee disease does not produce the desired outcome.

There will be more research to come...in the meantime the challenge is to develop new interventions which are truly helpful.