Editorial

Innovative Therapies: A Word of Caution

Daniel Loisance^*
Department of Cardiac Surgery, CHU Henri Mondor Créteil France, Paris, France

^*Corresponding author: Daniel Loisance, Department of Cardiac Surgery, CHU Henri Mondor Créteil France, Paris, France

Published: 09 Jan, 2018
Cite this article as: Loisance D. Innovative Therapies: A Word of Caution. Clin Surg. 2018; 3: 1848

Editorial

The natural impulse of the human nature is to believe what we want to believe. An example: less invasive surgery is the best. It fulfill the expectations of the patients : less pain, less car, less hospital stay, more faster recovery and return to normal life for similar results than big surgery. Another example: the new technologies. It’s new, and then it is better! I want my surgeon to operate on me with a robot! Is this belief based on solid scientific evidence? Actually not sure. I will agree: Science should give the answer. However the march of science is not a straight line. In Science, there is a permanent competition between the bumblers and the pointers, the bumblers who live in the past. The bumblers those who are putting forward the risks of a new valve: misplacement of the valve in a TAVI procedure, peri-valvular leaks, tissular consequences of the crimping the pericardial tissue to facilitate the percutaneous placement of the valve, early valve failure and late calcifications. The bubblers are not convinced by the «scientific» studies: TAVI is non inferior than surgical valves. But is it better? What about the long term results? The fact that most of these studies are sponsored by the industry is backing seriously their skepticism. The pointersal ways say that the bumblers are just bumbling! They claim that nobody can be against progress. However, it is not because they shout more loudly that what they say is the truth. Repeating endlessly the same lies does not turn the min to truth. The media and the population are extremely sensitive and easily convinced by simple messages, if they are expressed loud. In addition, they take advantage of the new regulation at the FDA: the «fast track procedure». Getting a new product fast to the patient is much easier than before. Good for the patient? Not sure. Good for the business for sure! Actually we have to be cautious and reach a right balance between truth seeking and skepticism, between greening credibility and glowering skepticism. The big issue is that if truth always wins; only God knows when.