The most popular form of cosmetic surgery is breast enlargement surgery. It is very popular amid women of all types of age group. It is believed such a women as young as in their 20′s are considering supposed for this moment kind of surgery. Many women own at this moment undergone the procedure successfully. This is popularly as well known as ‘boob job’. Breast Enhancement Without Surgery
This increments the breasts size and creates fuller breasts. Those who opt for this kind of surgery are women who desire fuller and bigger breasts. Usually after weight loss or childbirth the breasts tend to sag. This condition can be corrected by undergoing breast enhancement surgery. The success of the surgery is quite high. Many women have successfully undergone the procedure. They have become more confident after the surgery. The effect of the surgery is not just physical but also psychic.
It is no small thing to feel confident after the surgery. They find themselves much attractive after the operation. In West, this is the most common form of cosmetic surgery. It is known to make women feel more self confident. It is likely that your self confidence may be affected if you are a woman with naturally smaller breasts. Giving an impetus to the size of breasts is the surgical process. It is a simple surgical procedure that can help you regain lost confidence.
Know The Procedure! The procedure is very simple. An implant is inserted through a small incision made in the natural crease of your breasts that can ensure breast enlargement. Later, you will be required to stay overnight in the hospital as required by your condition. You would be closely monitored during your stay. If you are found fit, you would be discharged the next day. It is easy to recover from the effect of the surgery.
You may be asked to stay away from any kind of physical activity for about a week. During this procedure, the stitches and dressing would be removed. It is also not advisable to engage in any kind of physical activity during the healing process. The reason for this is very simple. Breast Uplift Surgery for Sagging Breasts! Women who have sagging breasts can undergo breast uplift surgery. Breast Enhancement Without Surgery
It is likely that women’s breasts can lose their shape through weight loss, following childbirth or as part of the natural ageing process. Such women can undergo breast uplift surgery. Start taking actions and work towards your dream figure! Download your ebook now!
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Health insurance for retirees or senior citizens can be confusing, especially with so many options and requirements. However, health insurance is crucial for retirees. As you grow older, your health obviously becomes more of an issue; you may visit the doctor more, need to fill more prescriptions, or even receive in-home care. Before you retire, prepare for health insurance to ensure that you receive the best benefits.
The first step in planning your health insurance coverage in your retirement is to see if your employer offers insurance coverage after you retire. If the company does, you should certainly consider it. Look at the plan, the deductible, and the coverage. Many near-retirees believe that Medicare will cover their medical payments, but this is not always the case. With this sort of coverage, you will most likely receive better health care but at a more expensive cost. As a retiree, you will certainly have a health insurance budget to maintain, and you will have to decide if the cost of your employer’s insurance is too expensive.
If your employer does not offer coverage, Medicare will be an important and integral part of your health insurance if you are 65 years of age or older. Medicare works like traditional health insurance plans in that you have been contributing a small portion of every paycheck you earn into this plan. Once Medicare begins, you will make co-payments for office visits or treatment. Medicare will also cover the expense of certain medical equipment or needs.
However, Medicare did not cover a number of items that are typical of health insurance. The government recently updated Medicare and divided it into three parts: Part A, B, and C. Part A covers hospital care, such as home health care, hospital stays, and hospice care. This part does not require a premium. Part B covers the more routine medical expenses, such as office visits and laboratory tests, while Part C enrolls you into a fee-for-service or managed care plan that reduces your out-of-pocket costs. Despite these different options, Medicare restricts your coverage by not covering certain kinds of care or illnesses and diseases. Thus, there is also Medigap coverage, which helps fill in the gaps in health insurance that Medicare leaves. Medigap coverage differs from state to state and has different payments.
Beyond Medicare and Medigap, there are also long-term care insurance plans that you can . You often see these plans advertised on the television at very low prices. These plans can help cover the costs of a nursing home or home health care. With so many different options and limitations, if you are retiring soon, you should take a look at your budget and what you can afford as well as what sort of coverage you feel you will need.
Usually and understandably we focus most of our attention to the medical treatment in the hospital; and less to the discharge from hospitals. Yet, the style in which this transitional phase is coordinated, is exceedingly critical to the physical and psychological health of your family members. The changeover could be to house, a rehabilitation center or a nursing home. It has been studied and proved that an efficient discharge from hospitals has a huge effect of improvement for the patients when they step into the following stage of care.
Health care providers, household members unitedly should play a significant role in supervising the patient’s health after patient discharge. Even though hospital discharge planning is a significant constituent of the total patient care, there is a deficiency of professionalism in the arrangement of discharge from the hospital. Discharge from hospitals is a procedure aimed at making the patient move from one care stage to another as smooth as possible. Whereas discharge from hospital can be cleared only by a doctor, the actual hospital discharge planning can be executed by a nurse, social worker or other person. A collective approach to patient discharge is really ideal.
It is essential that assessment and discussion should precede the patient discharge planning. Licensed personnel should assess the patient and the caregivers have to know about them. You should even workout the procedure for the patient’s shift to his house or another care center. Determine what support or training for the caregiver is required. Ascertain aid level needed by home care unit or care centers of the community. Organize follow-up for tests or appointments.
Discussion is essential to survey the patient’s state of wellness. Helps to know if he can go home or to a care unit depending upon the level of tending required. It should involve information on diet and medications, equipments needed like a wheelchair, commode, oxygen and also nomination of personnel for preparation of meals, chores and transport. Statistics show that 40% of patients over 65 years of age were not provided with proper medication after patient discharge and 18% of Medicare patients after discharge from hospitals are readmitted within 30 days. This is damaging to the patient as well as the funding authority. Right planning for discharge and adequate follow-up improves patient’s health, ward off readmissions and lowers health care costs.
Easy measures taken after patient’s discharge from hospital are of enormous value. A phone for care information and a follow up appointment with the medical practitioner are some of them. A thorough survey of all medications is required prior to a patient’s discharge from hospital to keep off medication errors. The discharge planners need to discuss with the caregiver about his ability to supply care. There may be physical, financial or other restrictions like occupation or a baby to look after and these limitations should be discussed with the hospital staff.
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Health insurance has now become a necessity. When an individual health insurance plan is chosen, it will not given to you be the employer, but you would be buying it for yourself and your family. You should know the details of the individual health insurance plan before deciding to choose it. Check out for health insurance plans in California. Blue Cross Health is available in California.
1. All health insurance providers will be able to provide you with details of the various plans that are available. You should read it thoroughly, ask questions if you do not understand something and know what exactly the coverage offers you. You should review the plan that you currently have and keep a list of the doctors and medications that you are taking. This will help you to know exactly what you current plan gives you and what you want out of a new plan that you are going to opt for.
2. around. Go to the internet and find out various options. Contact the local broker or health insurance agent and find out details about the different plans available and the amount you will have to pay. You can also choose a health plan on you own without going through an agent.
3. You should compare the plans that are offered by different Companies choose the plan most suited to you.
4. You should get the health insurance quote and then make a decision.
5. You should be aware that your insurance premium will be based on your location which is determined by your zip code. In California you can get many types of health insurance plans.
6. It would be best to find a professional health insurance broker who is well trained, to give you the available options and help you in understanding the plans. This will help you to know deductibles and co-pays, cost shares and percentage. The broker will not charge you and will get a commission directly.
7. The professional broker will be able to help you in going through the process of getting the insurance plan with ease. He will be able to guide you as to which insurance company and plan you can choose. Some companies might not accept you and this can save from a denial from a health insurance company.
8. You can choose short term plans which will be easier to get and the coverage will start almost immediately. The disadvantage will be that once the term ends you will have to re-qualify.
9. You should also compare the individual plans with the once offered by your employer and choose the one that gives you the best coverage.
10. You should read the find print to be aware of the limitations and the exclusions. You should also know the lifetime maximums, in case you develop some major health problem.
11. You should also make sure that the list of doctors and hospitals offered by the plan is what your family requires. You should also know whether the medicines that you are taking are included in their list. You should also know whether dental and eye care is included.
Keeping these tips in mind, you should do a thorough research and find out the best individual health insurance plan that is most suited to your needs and fits your budget.
Peterr nike is an Expert author for . He has written many articles like . For information visit our site .
If 1.5 million serious medication mistakes happen every year, and 100,000 people die from them, how do you make sure you and your loved ones aren’t among the casualties? Take these five steps to make sure medication mistakes don’t happen to you.
1. Be prepared.
Make a list of prescription drugs, nonprescription drugs, and any supplements such as vitamins, minerals, or herbs that you and your family members are taking. Keep a copy in your wallet, and update it regularly.
2. Have regular medication reviews.
At least once a year, have your general practitioner or primary doctor review your list of medications to make sure there are no dangerous combinations, incorrect dosages, or medications inappropriate for your age and circumstances. Remember, as time goes by, your body changes, and a medication that was perfectly fine five years ago may not be healthy — or even necessary — today.
Another possibility, suggests Anne Meneghetti, M.D., director of Clinical Communication for Epocrates, a medication management system for doctors, is what she calls “brown-bagging it.” Load everything you or your family member is taking — including medications, vitamins and minerals, and herbal supplements — into a bag and bring it to the doctor’s office. With the actual vials and labels in front of her, the doctor will have better information.
3. Take advantage of pharmacy consults.
At the pharmacy, ask for (or accept, if it’s offered automatically) a consultation with the pharmacist. Sometimes pharmacists are easier to talk to than doctors, and they can explain whether the drug should be taken alone or with meals and what side effects you need to be alert for. Pharmacists are also highly knowledgeable about medication interactions, so if you have a chance, ask the pharmacist to review your list of medications as a safety check.
4. In the hospital, be proactive both prior to and after surgery.
Prior to surgery, ask if there’s anything you need to stop taking, and how soon before surgery you should stop. Afterward, when doctors and nurses come around to administer medication, ask them (assuming you’re conscious) to explain what drugs you’re being given and what effect they’re meant to have. If you’re not going to be conscious for a length of time and you have someone accompanying you, ask him or her to do this for you.
5. Go home prepared to follow up.
During the hospital discharge process, ask to be sent home with a list of all the medications you were given during your stay, plus those that you’ll be taking home with you. Have your regular doctor or nurse go over them with you to make sure you understand how they should be taken.
Caring.com Editorial Team
Caring.com features original content focused exclusively on eldercare matters.Our 20+ editors and writers research and fact-check every article meticulously,and our advisory board reviews the site regularly to assure the accuracy and relevance of the material we publish. We have hundreds of articles and checklists on health, housing, finance, legal and family issues, and other caregiving concerns,and we’re adding new articles and other resources every day.
The demand for coding and billing professionals is ever on the rise in the healthcare industry. When you have a to your credit, you certainly have an edge in the job market. More so because many employers prefer to hire candidates with certification since it gives them the assurance that a candidate has the right skills and qualifications to perform the work.
A medical billing and coding certificate usually offers the opportunity for higher paying health care jobs. Billing and coding certification are often different exams; as such knowing which type of certification you need is vital. Billing and coding certification is not always required to work as a medical coder; but normally hospitals and other health care facilities prefer their staff to be certified.
In case a new employee is not certified, many employers will want their employees to get hold of a billing and coding certification, normally within a specified time frame. Normally this is usually required within six months of employment. For the benefit of employees, some healthcare facilities have become certified testing sites and can offer coursework and examination for coding and billing exams.
In the United States, there are several levels of certification as it relates to coding, depending on the organization through which the certification is earned. The American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) offers credentials, including CPC, CPC-H, CIRCC, among other specialized credentials.
Once a medical coder gets herself a certification, she needs to keep her medical billing and coding certificate current by obtaining continued education units (CEUs), normally offered through the same institution from where the original billing and coding certification was acquired. One can obtain CEUs by attending seminars and conferences as well.
codingcert.com provides selected trainers that gives you hands-on training for becoming a through at our CPC training camp.
Beware of M.M.C.S. (Medical Marijuana Cultivation Syndrome)
One of the top beaches in Southern California is the north end of Ocean Beach, San Diego. Someone unfamiliar with that beach scene might presume it to be a surfer’s haven, clothing optional sun bathing, or just a freak fest. Nope, not even close, it’s Dog Beach. People, oceanic beauty, canines, and love all rolled into one. This example is merely a microcosm of intensity between other living non-humans, and their relationship.
Medical Marijuana cultivation is all about a garden of living plants, dependent on you for everything- just like your pets or children. You will take an embryonic seed all the way to harvest, with a myriad of emotions in between. When you prep your grow area by trimming ivy, raking, turning soil, composting, fertilizing, and weeding- that’s just like painting the nursery pink, or putting bedding in the new dog house. You are about to celebrate new life.
Pot farmers, as they affectionately refer to themselves, call their plants “babies”, and they do this until full maturity, just like I’m still my mom’s baby at 57. Getting down in the deep, moist, dirty soil is akin to changing diapers, especially if you treat your plants with fish emulsion food supplements. This is what catches most newbies off-guard, the living aspect of your garden of Medical Marijuana. Yes, it’s great that you’ll benefit in a medicinal way, exhibiting pride in your accomplishments along the journey, but the intensity and catharsis from cultivation- could easily push your new found passion, into a syndrome.
One trap that’s easy to fall into is the one of exclusion. In many States cultivation is still illegal, even for medicinal reasons, and those that are approved, the patient needs an I.D. This means that some Medical Marijuana cultivators may have a stigma attached to their gardening endeavor, thus keeping it on the “down-low”. This bunker mentality may keep you and your “babies” isolated for a while, where you sleep-work-and tend garden. It’s very easy to spend a few hours among your plants, even on a daily basis. Weekends will involve trips to the local plant nursery, Doctors and Nurses will sneak out blood by- products from the hospitals to feed their plants, and Encarsia Formosa strips will be ordered to keep Whitefly pests away. If you have a spouse or significant other, include them in your new hobby to defer their wrath.
Security is yet another umbilical cord that will be difficult to cut. The older your plants become, the greater your concern and intensity. Watching these Sativas or Indicas mature, keeping them pest free, and making sure low life rip-off artists don’t get hold of them, is just like waiting at the bus stop- ‘til your kids are safely off to school. A good watch dog, motion sensor lights, and booby traps (be creative) are mild panaceas at best. Better yet, just hang-out with your babies 24/7, thus the M.M.C.S. strengthens.
The mix of earth, climate, beautiful plants, and nurturing of life- is very encompassing. Your end product offers therapeutic relief of an ailment, but the come down after your garden expires, may take your psyche to a place you’ve never been. If you feel totally bummed out after harvest, find some more seeds and dig in again. Remember, grow American!
New developments and techniques in the field of bariatric surgery provide less invasive procedures, faster healing times, and reduced risk of tissue and surrounding organ damage. One such technique is called endoscopic bariatric surgery. The bariatric surgical subspecialty has been used by Dr. Marco Sariñana Guridi of Mexicali Obesity Solutions for a number of years. Dr. Sariñana specializes in metabolic surgery, diabetes treatment, hypertension, high cholesterol and fatty liver disease treatments combined with in Mexico.
Dr. Sariñana realizes that obesity and weight gain creates multiple body function issues, including sleep apnea, increased risk of hypertension, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease, as well as increased risks of diabetes, the need for insulin injections, and other conditions that may eventually lead to joint damage as well as multi-system organ damage.
Endoscopic Bariatric Surgery: A Brief Overview One of the newer techniques in bariatric surgical procedures, the endoscopic approach to bariatric surgery is considered minimally invasive, and is actually considered a nonsurgical approach to treat obesity through the restriction of the size of the stomach. A tube called an endoscope is inserted into the mouth and threaded into the stomach, enabling bariatric surgeons to reduce the size of the stomach without incisions through the process of stapling. The procedure is known as Transoral Gastroplasty (aka TOGA), and is currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials in the United States, though the technique has been utilized by international bariatric surgeons, including Italy, Belgium and Mexico since 2006.
Metabolic Surgery Packages Dr. Sariñana and his Mexicali Obesity Solutions team offer long lasting treatments that are both effective and minimally invasive to treat not only obesity but its related conditions. Utilizing metabolic surgical procedures, Dr. Sariñana and his team successfully achieve weight loss for patients, improve insulin resistance and even offer a metabolic surgery package for USD 7,500 (less than the cost of a similar endoscopic procedure in the U.S.) that also includes:
* Free transportation from San Diego, California Airport to the hotel, hospital and airport return * Free pre-op tests including labs, assessment and x-rays, nutritional and psychological evaluation * Hospital, surgeon and anesthesiologist fees * Consultation reviewing gastric bypass surgery procedure * Hotel stay for one or two companions
About Dr. Sariñana and Mexicali Obesity Solutions Dr. Sariñana and his team at Mexicali Obesity Solutions offer a variety of bariatric surgical procedures in addition to the endoscopic surgery, including:
* Gastric banding * Sleeve Gastrectomy * Gastric bypass * Lap band * Vertical Gastrectomy
Dr. Sariñana completed his medical training through the Faculty of Medicine of Mexicali, and specialized in his first four years in general surgery at the General Surgery Hospital General de Zacatecas. He has continued education and training in laparoscopic surgical procedures, vascular trauma, management of grade 4 renal injury, and Assistant Surgical Physiopathology under the National Congress of the General Surgery in Veracruz, just to name a few.
Dr. Sariñana and his team are dedicated to providing affordable that meets the highest standards of care and quality. Offering patients suffering from obesity affordable technology and long term success in weight loss, Dr. Sariñana and Mexicali Obesity Solutions are the key to treatments that are safe, effective and affordable.
MaryJo is an RN who has worked in health tourism for over 35 years. She has done international medical management consulting for a major health care organization. Prior to joining PlacidWay ( she worked for the nation’s leading healthcare IT company as an implementation consultant for Electronic Medical Records.
It’s easy for me to find a well qualified medical doctor. Being a doctor myself, I know where to look, whom to ask, and what to ask for. But if I need a good lawyer or accountant, I feel a bit helpless. I may ask my friends. Probably they had asked their friends. The quest becomes a daisy chain, in which none of the participants really knows how to tell a good professional from a mediocre or even an inadequate one. They judge mainly on whether the practitioner has a pleasing and persuasive manner, whether he seems to know what he’s talking about. Clearly that’s not good enough. Finding a well qualified physician requires a little insight, but it’s easier than you think. Most physicians are members of the county medical society, although some doctors who are full time in medical schools may not bother to join. Call up the medical society in your vicinity. In Los Angeles, for example, you would find it listed as “Los Angeles County Medical Association.” Say you want to inquire about the availability and qualifications of physicians in your area of the city Hollywood, for example. The receptionist will connect you to the person who has that information. Say you are interested in finding a doctor in Hollywood who is a general practitioner, a specialist, or whatever it is you think you need. If you want an allaround doctor to give you an initial examination, to supervise you in a preventive health program such as mine, you probably want either a general practitioner or a physician certified by the Board of Internal Medicine. Ask for recommendations in that category.The county medical society will not recommend a specific person. Nor will it supply information on fees and such matters. But it will gladly give you a list of 4 or 5 practitioners located in your area and in good standing with the society. It will tell you where these physicians went to school, where they served their internships and residencies, how long they have been a member of the county society, and their hospital or medical school affiliations. If they are on the attending staff of a well known hospital Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, for example that’s a plus. Being a member of the recently formed American College of Gerontology would also be a plus.Or if you do start by asking your friends, ask more than one. Compile a short list of physicians whom your friends recommend as attentive individuals. Then call the county society and ask for the credentials of these physicians: what medical schools they graduated from, and so on . Several orgaizations now publish lists of longevity doctors for different regions of the United States. None that I’ve seen has been very discriminating. The lists include a mishmash of M.D.s, some good, some borderline, plus chiropractors, nutritionists, acupuncturists, and so on. TherE are some good people in each of these categories, but you ought at least to know what type of basic credentials you are getting. For example, “Dr.” Robert Haas, author of the best selling book Eat to Win The Sports Nutrition Bible, is not a medical doctor at all. His “Dr.” is a Ph.D. from an unaccredited “university.”8 If that’s okay with you, it’s okay with me, but know what you are getting. The county medical society is apt to have information on M.D. and non M.D. alike. Seek out this information. Having selected a short list of possible practitioners by one of these methods, call them up. Ask what their fees are, and whether they are interested in preventive medicine, nutrition, and anti aging remedies. Don’t be bashful! If they don’t want to talk frankly, go elsewhere. Don’t tolerate the authoritarian mystique that has grown up around organized medicine. Ideally, you want somebody with satisfactory credentials and an open mind on the subject of anhagjng remedies. II he does not take the present book seriously because it .is a popular book for the lay public see if he has read or will read the book by Dr. Richard Weindruch and me, The Retardation of Aging by Dietary Restriction. Our book does not exactly parallel this one, but it’s close enough,and it is a fully documented, high tech science book. A biologIst physician may in part disagree with it, but he or she cannot avoid taking it seriously. And now you have your physician.Checkups And Biomarkers What Exactly To Do Or Have DoneThe General Status Examination ,Start the program with a general medical checkup. The precise nature of this will be up to your physician. It’s interesting that a task force of the Canadian Medical As sociation, reporting on a “cost effective” basis what the “periodic health examination” should consist of (in terms of how much hidden disease per dollar spent might be found in a population)9 recommended the following for symptom-free individuals: a blood pressure determination, examination of the mouth, evaluation of hearing, a test for possible hypothyroidism, and after age 45 a test for traces of blood in the stool. The task force specifically did not recommend a routine history and physical examination, any X-rays, any blood chemistries, urinalysis, or electro cardiograms. Since you want personalized service and are not part of a large scale “cost effective” screen, your physician will be correct in doing a history and physical examination, a urinalysis, and a test for anemia. I would not personally recommend any X rays, blood chemistries, or electro cardiograms, except those included under your “biomarker for aging” tests, unless something shows up on the history and physical examination.
Michael Russell is a health specialist and has carried out research on many health related things, he also writes many too. If you found the above article useful he recommends you to visit his site at: for more related articles.
Let’s suppose that you have been diagnosed as having a pinched nerve in your neck, also known as cervical radiculopathy. If so, you probably have pain in the neck and one shoulder. The pain might radiate into your arm and you might have weakness or numbness in the arm as well. Moving your neck in certain positions probably worsens the pain.
If you’re a younger adult, the pinch could be due to a herniated (slipped) disc. Discs are the soft spacers that separate each pair of stacked neck-bones (vertebrae). If you’re an older adult, the pinch is more likely due to a bony spur (spondylosis). In either case, you’re in good company. A survey in Sicily showed 3.5 active cases at any one time of cervical radiculopathy per population of 100,000. In Rochester, Minnesota, another survey showed 85 new cases each year of cervical radiculopathy per population of 100,000.
Let’s say that your doctor has evaluated you thoroughly by taking a history of your symptoms and performing a physical examination. Perhaps with the additional help of an MRI of your cervical spine (neck) and electrical tests of nerve and muscle function (nerve conduction studies and electromyography) the diagnosis of cervical radiculopathy is deemed definite. Furthermore, there is no sign that the spinal cord itself is pinched. Now what?
Now what, indeed. Choosing a treatment for this condition is far from straightforward. Out of hundreds of published medical reports concerning treatment of cervical radiculopathy, most are case reports or case series. A “case series” translates roughly as: “We gave six patients in a row the same treatment and five of them got better.” What can be concluded from a study of this kind? Did the treatment make the patients better or would they have improved anyway? We don’t know.
The missing ingredient here is a comparison group of untreated or differently treated individuals known as a control group. The other mark of a quality study is that the chosen treatment is randomized, meaning that the research subjects agreed in advance to be assigned to one treatment group or another based on the equivalent of a coin-toss. So out of the hundreds of published studies involving treatment of this common condition, how many were randomized controlled trials? Unfortunately, the answer is just one.
Liselott Persson, Carl-Axel Carlsson and Jane Carlsson at the University Hospital of Lund, Sweden, randomly allocated 81 patients who had symptoms of cervical radiculopathy present for at least three months to any of three treatments — surgery, physical therapy or a cervical collar. The patients ranged from 28 to 64 years old and 54% of them were male. The surgeons used the so-called Cloward procedure, removing fragments of protruding discs and spurs through an incision in the front of the neck, and then fusing two neck-bones together by means of a bone-graft. Physical therapy involved 15 sessions over a span of three months and consisted of whatever the physical therapist considered appropriate, variously including any of the following: heat application, cold application, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, massage, manipulation, exercise and education. In the cervical collar group, patients wore rigid, shoulder-resting collars every day for three months. Additionally, some of the subjects wore soft collars overnight.
How did the study turn out? Three of the subjects who were assigned to surgery refused the procedure because they had already improved on their own. For statistical purposes their outcomes were included with those who actually received the operation. After three months the surgery and physical therapy groups reported, on average, less pain. After an additional 12 months patients in all three groups had less pain than at the beginning of the study and the outcomes of each treatment were statistically alike. Measurements of mood and overall function following treatment were likewise equal among the groups.
So, over the long haul, no treatment was better than the others. Of course, within each group some patients did better or worse than others and this spread of outcomes was not reflected in the overall averages. In fact, five patients in the collar group and one patient in the physical therapy group went on to receive surgery owing to lack of satisfactory improvement. In addition, eight patients in the surgery group underwent a second operation that in one case was due to a complication of the first operation.
With this Swedish study representing the only rigorous investigation of treatment outcomes in cervical radiculopathy, there are a number of unanswered questions. For example, what are the effects on cervical radiculopathy of painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, local injections, systematic traction or other forms of surgery? We don’t know. What happens if there is no treatment whatsoever? We don’t know the answer to that question either.
Thus, in the care of individual patients there is a yin-yang balancing act between the medical edict of “Above all, do no harm” and the practical dictum of “Do what you have to do.” This balancing act usually means starting with less intrusive treatments like drugs and physical therapy. If symptoms fail to improve or become unbearable, an operation may be helpful.