0 a type of surgery in which a very small hole is made in a person's body in order to look at a joint using a special instrument and sometimes to repair the joint at the same time:
The majority of operative procedures were arthroscopies (90.1% of all procedures), most of which were undertaken on a day-case basis.
Table 1 shows the postoperative diagnoses and procedures performed in the 110 patients who underwent arthroscopy.
One study (7) estimated that for an experienced sports surgeon, 4% of the arthroscopies could have been averted compared with 14% for the other physicians.
A source of variation among studies estimating the proportion of potentially avoidable arthroscopies is the criteria used to consider that the procedure would be averted.
An economic evaluation was performed based on cost-effectiveness ratios (per averted arthroscopy), including direct and indirect costs.
Unfortunately, there is no scientific evidence to substantiate the efficacy of arthroscopy for "gray areas" such as the ones considered here.
However, diagnostic arthroscopy sometimes reveals no abnormality or only minor lesions.
One hundred sixteen patients (48%) were scheduled for arthroscopy.
