Skip the surgery and pop the placebo, writes cheeky surgeon-author

Any surgery carries risk, which is why decisions to put patients under the knife should be carefully considered. However, one surgeon is calling attention to the fact that some common procedures end up being about as effective as a placebo procedure would have been—and the placebo would have cost a lot less while doing the patient zero harm.

Australian orthopedic surgeon and professor Ian Harris, also known as “Dr. Skeptic,” makes the case in a new book titled Surgery, The Ultimate Placebo: A Surgeon Cuts through the Evidence.

With his blog as his medium, Dr. Harris has taken it upon himself to review his own book. 

The review may be somewhat tongue in cheek, but the book sounds genuinely intriguing.