Link

CT-Scans, physical exams, and more!  You get five.  Yes FIVE!  Medical procedures that are dangerous, stupid, or wastes of time.

Asanta, this one’s for you.

Sorry, lots of gross oversimplifications as well as the usual “it’s all about the money” bit. Certainly a core of truth in there somewhere for most of them (especially the circumcision section), but the overall impression conveyed is so simplistic as to be fundamentally inaccruate. Too may CTs done? You bet. All done for moeny even though everybody knows they’re useless? Nope.

Bear in mind that Cracked is a satirical humor sight, Mac.

mckenzievmd - 09 November 2010 11:33 AM

Sorry, lots of gross oversimplifications as well as the usual “it’s all about the money” bit. Certainly a core of truth in there somewhere for most of them (especially the circumcision section), but the overall impression conveyed is so simplistic as to be fundamentally inaccruate. Too may CTs done? You bet. All done for moeny even though everybody knows they’re useless? Nope.

I have to agree with Brennan. Sometimes we need the information we can only get with a CT scan. Not everyone can get an MRI (remember the magnetic part?). Other than (most of) the part on circumcision, it is a bag of misinformation, misdirection with a kernel of truth.
Besides, you’d be surprised at the number of patients who come in for their physical with a “by the way doc”, and get either admitted to the hospital, or have something diagnosed with further testing (like diabetes) before it has caused a great deal of harm.

Yeah, I logged off after reading the section on CT scans.  They even give themselves away.  First, they claim CT scans are useless and bad for one, but then they quote the number done annually and say 30% of them are unnecessary.  What about the 70% that were necessary? 

Occam

Yes, I’ve seen kids admitted from the pedi office to the ICU for; leukemia (patient was pale and doctor suspicious), diabetes (noted fruity breath), emergency tracheotomy (it was the first time the doc had seen the infant sleeping and realized his breathing was VERY compromised, something the family had missed for 6 months), once an infant was rushed (he ran—with him in his arms) from the pedi’s office in his arms to our ICU. The parents brought him in for a well check, not realizing he was deathly ill. He died soon after he landed on our doorstep. The parents were outside of the unit talking and laughing, not realizing how ill their child was (we’d not had a chance to talk with them yet), when the doctor had to go out to tell them that their ‘well’ infant was dead, they were of course stunned. Those are off the top of my head, given a few hours I could probably come up with many more.

We do CT and MRI scans to find what we used to do exploratory laproscopies for. The incidences of the ‘exploratories’ went waaay down after this technology came into play. The only common ‘exp lap’ I can think of is in the case of appendicitis when we are 99% sure of what it is, and there is no reason to waste the time and money (oops, did I mention saving money?).

Badly named article.

But frmo what I can see, the information once you get past the bad marketing is accurate.  It’s not saying that these things constitute homeopathy; it’s saying that they’re overused and can cause problems because of the overuse.

Is there a member who is a radiologist here who can shed some light. Not a tech please. An actual MD. with credentials would be preferable.

UnbiasedSkeptic.

We don’t require anyone here to share personal information or credentials, and we generally try to judge the arguments folks make on their own merits, rather than on the basis of who they claim to be. SO it is not helpful to the discussion to ask for input from someone with credentials you consider relevant or to imply that the opinions already given can/should be disregarded because the members have not laid claim to such credentials.