Electrothermal coagulation of the joints that ail you
Author's note: It's been three years since I wrote the following post. As far as IDET and ETAC goes, it seems I may have been right on with my foresighted rant.
Intradiscal electrothermal coagulation (IDET) or Electrothermally Assisted Capsule Shift(ETAC) both use heat conveyed through an arthroscopic catheter in the joints to damage andtherefore shrink collegen based tissue (extremely basically put.) It seems to be leading to degrees of resolution of some chronic back or shoulder pains and is advocated to be a great alternative to more invasive surgery for many a pain striken patient. It has caused it's share of heated debate in certian scientific and medical communities over the few years it's been around. Now there are groups of physicians and even facilities using these procedures as a mainstay for practice. There was even an article in NewsWeek about it awhile back so I'm sure tons of info can be found on the www. The Company making the "Spine-CATH" used in these procedures is at www.oratec.com.
On the soapbox: It seems more and more often that new products and devices get an FDA stamp of approval; which basically means it shouldn't seriously harm anyone if it's used as described in the petition for approval. Then suddenly the marketing spin-masters pump millions of bucks and recruit myriads of MD's and before you know it, it's a standard of care without really proving it's worth through scientific process. Or, more likely, the device is FDA approved to butter toast and suddenly everyone's using it make bread (this happens with new drugs, I've noticed.) I think it hurts the average taxpayer more to have unproven technologies rammed into our Doctor's and Surgeon's offices much more than have the .org snakeoil peddlers around. It's easy for us to pick on the quack out there trying to scam a quick buck, but I too will bethe last one to sign a post that suggests the latest-greatest FDA approved drug or device isn't all it's being touted to be, and could be driven more by corporation bottom line than real worth to health andwell-being.
Intradiscal electrothermal coagulation (IDET) or Electrothermally Assisted Capsule Shift(ETAC) both use heat conveyed through an arthroscopic catheter in the joints to damage andtherefore shrink collegen based tissue (extremely basically put.) It seems to be leading to degrees of resolution of some chronic back or shoulder pains and is advocated to be a great alternative to more invasive surgery for many a pain striken patient. It has caused it's share of heated debate in certian scientific and medical communities over the few years it's been around. Now there are groups of physicians and even facilities using these procedures as a mainstay for practice. There was even an article in NewsWeek about it awhile back so I'm sure tons of info can be found on the www. The Company making the "Spine-CATH" used in these procedures is at www.oratec.com.
On the soapbox: It seems more and more often that new products and devices get an FDA stamp of approval; which basically means it shouldn't seriously harm anyone if it's used as described in the petition for approval. Then suddenly the marketing spin-masters pump millions of bucks and recruit myriads of MD's and before you know it, it's a standard of care without really proving it's worth through scientific process. Or, more likely, the device is FDA approved to butter toast and suddenly everyone's using it make bread (this happens with new drugs, I've noticed.) I think it hurts the average taxpayer more to have unproven technologies rammed into our Doctor's and Surgeon's offices much more than have the .org snakeoil peddlers around. It's easy for us to pick on the quack out there trying to scam a quick buck, but I too will bethe last one to sign a post that suggests the latest-greatest FDA approved drug or device isn't all it's being touted to be, and could be driven more by corporation bottom line than real worth to health andwell-being.
posted by nawledge at
7:01 PM
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