Surgeons commerce in medicine?

Surgeons: Commerce in medicine? Professor med. Reiner Gradinger, the president of the German Society for Surgery (DGCH), has warned according to media reports that for many doctors and clinics in Germany economic as patient interests in the foreground of their work.

(20.04.2010) Professor dr. med. Reiner Gradinger, the president of the German Society of Surgery (DGCH), has, according to media reports to the magazine „Focus“ It is urged that for many doctors and clinics in Germany economic as patient interests in the foreground of their work. The DGCH is organizing its 127th congress in Berlin next weekend, where it intends to address the issue. As an example, Professor Gradinger called back pain patients, some of which would get therapies, such as the Racz pain catheters, which maximize profit but have not been scientifically proven. The so-called Racz catheter is named after the US anesthesiologist Prof. Gabor Racz. In this case, a local anesthetic, 10% saline solution, cortisone and hyaluronidase (enzyme, which can dissolve connective tissue) is given to a pain site, usually on the lumbar spine. The achievement is to cost according to media reports several thousand euro. Furthermore, Gradinger stated that eventually it could even go so far as to save at the same time in older people with hip prostheses. You could „due to commercial pressure“ in a hip prosthesis the cheaper cemented variant can be used.

In the case of Professor Reiner Gradinger's assessments, expertise and insider knowledge must be assumed. He is in addition to his presidency at the DGCH still in Munich at the Klinikum rechts der Isar CEO and Medical Director. So he should already know what he is talking about when he denounces unnecessary interventions that could bring more money to the involved physicians or institutions than the patient. One may be curious about discussions within the medical profession at the DGCH congress next weekend at the ICC in Berlin, where the issue should be further discussed and discussed. (Thorsten Fischer, HP Osteopathy)