This is the third video made from Dr. Luks in New York and he starts out talking about the weather, but it gets a lot better!   If you are going to have surgery he imagestates a second opinion is something you may want to pursue.  He discussed the importance of “patient” getting involved.  Realistic expectations are important so you know what the “quality of life” is going to be and how surgery will improve this.

Is the pain interfering with your quality of life, it’s time to have a heart to heart with yourself as the patient.  He states you need to know up front what you are in for with surgery.  Dr. Luks does quite a few second opinions and states that the 2nd opinion will help with an injury behaving differently with one patient than it does another.  Good stuff and worth a listen as the MRI is not the only element that goes into making a decision.

Second Opinions

If you liked this video, there’s a couple more by Dr. Luks  that are also very good where he speaks about knee and rotator cuff surgery.  These are some of the questions answered that maybe you might not think to ask.  I like it when someone can beat me to the punch, especially if I’m a patient about to have surgery, especially the surgeons.  Good information is hard to find sometimes with the internet and real straight talk is appreciated.  BD 

Considering a Total Knee Replacement-Some Straight Talk from an Orthopedic Surgeon

Rotator Cuff Repair–Is Surgery Always Needed And What If It Is-Straight Talk (Video)

This has been a very busy week already.  I have seen many second opinions and I am always very interested in the reason why the patient initiated the second opinion.  In many situations it was simply to see if I would perform the surgery.   After I spent a while *listening* to the patient, examining them and coming up with an appropriate treatment plan... more than 50% of the patients I had seen elected not to have the surgery at this time.  They weren't ready, or their symptoms didn't warrant it... or worse the information they received prior to our interaction was mis-leading or wrong.

SECOND OPINIONS | Shared Decision Making | Participatory Medicine .... This is an IMPORTANT topic - The Orthopedic Posterous

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