Annals of surgery
The most recent articles from:
Ann. Surg.
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We analyze the ethics of sham surgical trials from a utilitarian perspective and explore whether patients can benefit from participating in these trials. ⋯ Patients often benefit from participating in sham surgery trials because the harms of the sham procedure are lower than the harms of the full procedure, which may turn out to be ineffective. Our results call for re-thinking the ethics of sham surgery trials.