Many Americans were in pain in 2017. Figuratively and literally.
Figuratively, after a divisive election, the pain manifested itself in street violence and 24 hour a day shouting on tribal media outlets.
Literally, people with body and psychic pain medicated themselves into a national opioid crisis. Americans, as the great historian Daniel Boorstin noted, have a nervous and ambitious “Go-Go” culture which has been self-medicating since the days of snake oil salesmen and magic elixirs to calm nerves and relieve pain.
Orthopedics played a part in the opioid crisis. Patients demanded relief and if prescriptions were not given, physician popularity grades plummeted and in one tragic case, a spine surgeon in Indiana paid for his caution in prescribing opioids with his life.
Our readers reflected these concerns by gravitating to stories that reported on drug-free pain therapies and tackled dramatic changes in practice managements (MACRA, MIPPS, ACA, etc. and the 15 hours a week everyone is now spending doing bleeping paperwork).
So, here in descending order are the top ten orthopedic stories of 2017 from the pages of Orthopedics This Week.
10. Bradshaw, NFL Great, Receives MicroPort Evolution Knee
NFL legend Terry Bradshaw said his knee pain had become so excruciating he couldn’t sleep comfortably, stand upright, or walk up and down stairs. So, his doctor recommended total knee replacement surgery that was performed by C. Lowry Barnes, M.D. at the University of Arkansas.
Barnes gave Bradshaw a MicroPort Evolution Knee. Bradshaw was so happy he immediately signed up to become a paid spokesperson for the company.
9. Freezing Knee Nerves Kills Pain
A story about iOvera, a nonsurgical pain treatment for patients with arthritis and other knee and joint issues developed by Vinod Dasa, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Louisiana’s State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center, attracted more reader comments than any other story of the year.
With iOvera, the surgeon temporarily freezes the nerves around the knee, alleviating a patient’s pain while avoiding nerve damage or surgery.
8. Sarcomas: What Do You Know?
James Wittig, M.D., Chief of Orthopedic Oncology and Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, has been on a mission to get his colleagues to pay attention to young patients who come in with dull aching pain which is often seen as a mechanical problem.
In fact, these patients may be in the early stages of bone sarcoma and if misdiagnosed—unlike most orthopedic conditions—can result in death.
“Listen to your gut. If things don’t add up, you may be looking at a tumor, says Wittig.
