Do they help reduce surgery, or increase it?
Each year about 20 million operations are performed in the U.S. Though surgeons claim that at most only 1% of these are unnecessary, some observers put the figure at more than 15%. Among the procedures said to be the most overdone: hysterectomies, tonsillectomies, gall bladder removals and operations on the the spine. To cut down on excessive use of the scalpel and, not incidentally, soaring medical-care costs, in the past few years federal agencies and insurance companies have been urging patients to get an independent second...