Add to the other orthopedic (and some other) surgeries that tend to be very lucrative for physicians and hospitals, but may have mediocre or worse outcomesthe increasing trend for surgery for patients with displaced fractures of the proximal humerus.
The article in JAMA concluded: ”Among patients with displaced proximal humeral fractures involving the surgical neck, there was no significant difference between surgical treatment compared with nonsurgical treatment in patient-reported clinical outcomes over 2 years following fracture occurrence. These results do not support the trend of increased surgery for patients with displaced fractures of the proximal humerus.”
And ”Nonsurgical patients also had lower rates of shoulder complications compared with surgical patients (18% versus 24%).”
Payers take note.
