In Defense of Sham Operations to Test Real Surgery

FEATURED SEARCH TERM:   sham surgery



The sham effect is real and alive and well in surgery today, and more surgical procedures should be compared to sham controls, says the author of this report. He found a little more than a dozen sham-controlled studies in recent literature, including studies of vertebroplasty, arthroscopy for osteoarthritis, implantation of dopaminergic neural tissue for Parkinson’s disease, and transmyocardial laser revascularization for refractory angina. In all of these sham-controlled studies, there is no evidence of the superiority of the actual surgery, he notes. 

RESULT: Sham Surgery
Virtual Mentor | Mar 1, 2012 (FREE FULL TEXT)



The strategy is certainly useful for assessing adverse effects of actual treatment. Here, a novel microneedle device designed to create microscopic channels in the skin appears to be safe when compared to a sham device. (Northwestern University researchers are conducting a clinical trial of this device intended to improve absorption of medications applied to facial skin.) In this report, the microneedle device elicited mild and rapidly resolving erythema that was only marginally greater than “dummy” control injections.


RESULT: Safety of a Novel Microneedle Device Applied to Facial Skin
Archives of Dermatology | Mar 19, 2012 (Free abstract. Full text $30)