Extract
To The Editor:I am writing to express my disappointment in the recent Instructional
Course Lecture, "Nonoperative Management of Low Back Pain and Lumbar
Disc Degeneration" (2004;86:1810-8), by Brodke and Ritter. It describes
the issue of nonoperative back care at a medical student level, which is not
at all appropriate for what an instructional course should provide—the
most up-to-date information presented by experts. This is especially sad
because low back pain is the most common musculoskeletal disease and, if
orthopaedists are expected to be the specialists who are knowledgeable in this
area, they should at least have available to them current evidence-based
treatment programs. The superficial summary of nonoperative care presented in
this article further guarantees that the orthopaedist will continue his or her
drift into the role of pure surgical technician, functioning at the behest of
clinicians more expert than they.