APPENDICITIS – OPERATION
Are operations such as appendicectomies, hysterectomies and tonsillectomies being done excessively in those private practices based on fee-for-service.
The allegation is worrying many doctors, politicians and the public, and peer review has been suggested as the answer.
This means that an individual doctor’s work would be reviewed by his fellow practitioners and compared with what is generally accepted as right and proper.
In this modern age, many people are not prepared to tolerate chronic symptoms which, perhaps, their parents were prepared to put up with because of a fear of operation or anaesthetic.
For example, appendicitis is common and the standard English textbook recommends that early diagnosis and prompt removal of the appendix is the ideal. If this be done, it may be that a number of “normal” appendices are removed.
The appendix comes off the caecum or first part of the large bowel. It is present only in humans, some anthropoid apes and the wombat.
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