60 Percent of All Surgeries are Medically Unjustified

An estimated 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed each year,writes Gary Null, PhD., in Death by Medicine. Rather than reverse the problems they purport to fix, these unwarranted procedures can often lead to greater health problems and even death. A 1995 report by Milliman & Robertson, Inc. concluded that nearly 60 percent of all surgeries performed are medically unnecessary, according to Under the Influence of Modern Medicine by Terry A. Rondberg. Some of the most major and frequently performed unnecessary surgeries include hysterectomies, Cesarean sections and coronary artery bypass surgeries.

Coronary bypasses are the most common unnecessary surgeries in America. "When faced with heart disease, doctors recommend a bypass. By so doing, they bypass the real problem. Bypasses are the single most commonly performed unnecessary surgery in the country," write Dr mark Hyman and Dr Mark Liponis in Ultraprevention. In fact, according to Burton Goldberg, author of Heart Disease, most coronary artery bypass surgeries and angioplasties produce no real benefit to the patient and dangerous side effects like stroke or brain damage may result from the operations. "Coronary artery bypass surgery is called an over prescribed and unnecessary surgery by many leading authorities, " Goldberg writes. "Complications from such treatments are common and the expense to the health care system is extraordinary high. In 1994, an estimated 501,000 bypass surgeries at $44,000 each were performed on Americans, 47 percent of which were done on men."

Women are at an especially high risk of unnecessary surgery, since hysterectomies and Cesarean sections also top the list of "over prescribed and unnecessary" surgeries. Of the approximately 750,000 hysterectomies performed each year, 90 percent are unnecessary, writes Goldberg in Alternative Medicine. 2,500 women die each year during the operation.