After two years of testing and waiting, Jack had the surgery. He was givenlocal anesthesia, spent an hour on the operating table, and stayed overnight in the hospital. But itturns out Jack was never given the fetal cells that may have helped him. The doctors were just goingthrough the motions. The surgery was a sham.
Sham surgery is performed to test whether a new treatment really works.
Jack's neurologist, Stanley Fahn, is one of the lead researchers on theParkinson's study. He says some surgical procedures should be put through the same rigorous testingas new drugs are, and that means having a group of patients go through a procedure not knowing ifit's the real thing. Sham surgery isn't limited to Parkinson's. It's also being used in studies ofknee operations and methods of controlling cancer pain. When patients volunteer for experimentaltreatments like these, they sign a consent form saying they understand they may not receive the realtreatment.