Costs of physical therapy in comparison to arthroscopic partial meniscectomy

Worldwide around 2 million arthroscopic knee operations are performed. These are accompanied by $ 4 billion in direct medical costs. Although a clinically important benefit of surgery over conservative treatment has not been demonstrated, the number of arthroscopic operations is decreasing more slowly than expected. An economic evaluation comparing conservative treatment with surgery can therefore confirm the findings of previous research and support the implementation of changes in clinical care. A recent model-based economic evaluation found that arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) was not cost-effective in patients with or at risk for osteoarthritis compared to a group of matched controls that received no treatment... read more