Sham surgery: an ethical analysis.

Franklin G Miller

doi:10.1162/152651603322614580

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Sham surgery: an ethical analysis.

Franklin G Miller

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Abstract

Surgical clinical trials have seldom used a "sham" or placebo surgical procedure as a control, owing to ethical concerns. Recently, several ethical commentators have argued that sham surgery is either inherently or presumptively unethical. In this article I contend that these arguments are mistaken and that there are no sound ethical reasons for an absolute prohibition of sham surgery in clinical trials. Reflecting on three cases of sham surgery, especially on the recently reported results of a sham-controlled trial of arthroscopic surgery for arthritis of the knee, I present an ethical analysis that focuses on the methodological rationale for use of sham surgery, risk-benefit assessment, and informed consent.

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Arthroscopy Deception Ethical Analysis Fetal Tissue Transplantation Human Experimentation Humans Informed Consent Osteoarthritis, Knee Placebos Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic Research Design Risk Assessment Surgical Procedures, Operative Analytical Approach Biomedical and Behavioral Research Journal Article

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Franklin G Miller. 2003. Sham surgery: an ethical analysis.. https://doi.org/10.1162/152651603322614580

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