More surgical "woo." Gynecological surgeons added this procedure to their repertoire

[pnwmom]

118. The point is that the procedure has been in use for decades without research backing it up.

And this isn't uncommon in medicine. Knee surgery for meniscus tears is another procedure that has been done by surgeons for decades without research showing that it is more useful than placebo. Since 2002, several studies have been released showing that in the majority of cases -- degenerative tears-- the surgery doesn't work. There was finally a study involving sham surgeries last year, which confirmed that meniscus surgery wasn't any more effective than a sham surgery. And yet the procedure is still used by orthopedic surgeons across the country in patients with degenerative tears, who are unlikely to benefit (as opposed to the minority of patients with tears from sudden accidents, who may benefit.)

Acupuncture has been shown in research to be both safe and effective for pain relief. So why is it considered "woo" by many here? Probably because the mechanism of action is unknown -- and it isn't "chi." And yet there are many accepted drugs that have been proven effective over decades of use that still have an unknown mechanism of action.

I don't know what would explain all the people who call acupuncture "woo" except for a bias in favor of western medicine. We take for granted that all treatments in western medicine are evidence-based, and have a known mechanism of action -- and that's simply not true.