200,000 unnecessary back surgeries

[bedrock]

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https://www.axios.com/2025/10/09/unneeded-back-surgery-medicare

 

[powermd]

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/09/unneeded-back-surgery-medicare

Another study just based on coding. I wonder if they bothered to look at the individual medical records they would find that patients coded as "low back pain" actually had radiculopathy too.

And apparently vertebroplasty for "osteoporotic vertebral fractures" is overuse. WTF?


AI summary of the methodology:

Definitions of “low-value” / overuse

• Spinal fusion and/or laminectomy (low-value): procedures performed for patients with low-back pain without any of the following (these patients were excluded from being counted as appropriate): radicular symptoms, trauma, herniated disc, discitis, spondylosis, myelopathy, radiculopathy, radicular pain, or scoliosis.
  
  • Spinal fusion only: additionally excludes patients with stenosis with neural claudication and spondylolisthesis.
  • Laminectomy only: excludes patients with stenosis with neural claudication.
• Vertebroplasty (low-value): procedures for osteoporotic vertebral fractures, excluding patients with bone cancer, myeloma, or hemangioma.

 

[callmeanesthesia]

Another study just based on coding. I wonder if they bothered to look at the individual medical records they would find that patients coded as "low back pain" actually had radiculopathy too.

And apparently vertebroplasty for "osteoporotic vertebral fractures" is overuse. WTF?


AI summary of the methodology:

Definitions of “low-value” / overuse

• Spinal fusion and/or laminectomy (low-value): procedures performed for patients with low-back pain without any of the following (these patients were excluded from being counted as appropriate): radicular symptoms, trauma, herniated disc, discitis, spondylosis, myelopathy, radiculopathy, radicular pain, or scoliosis.
  • Spinal fusion only: additionally excludes patients with stenosis with neural claudication and spondylolisthesis.
  • Laminectomy only: excludes patients with stenosis with neural claudication.
• Vertebroplasty (low-value): procedures for osteoporotic vertebral fractures, excluding patients with bone cancer, myeloma, or hemangioma.

That sounds like they used sloppy methodology to study sloppy coding in order to generate a flashy news-worthy result.