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  3. Every year more than half a million American kids have drainage tubes surgica

Every year more than half a million American kids have drainage tubes surgica

游客2025-01-07  27
问题    Every year more than half a million American kids have drainage tubes surgically implanted in their ears to combat persistent infections. The procedure, known as tympanostomy, may not be as common as the tonsillectomy was in the 1940s, but it now ranks as the nation’s leading childhood operation and a new study suggests it’s being vastly overused. In reviewing more than 6,000 scheduled ear tube operations, a team of experts led by Harvard pediatrician Lawrence Kleinman found that fewer than half were clearly justified. "Each year," the researchers write in the current Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), "several hundred thousand children in the United States may be receiving tympanostomy tubes that offer them no demonstrated advantage ... and may place them at increased risk."
   Tube placement isn’t a terribly risky procedure, but it costs $1,000 to $1,500 and sometimes scars the eardrum, causing a partial loss of hearing. Studies show that the benefits are most likely to outweigh the risks if a child’s middle ear has produced sticky fluid for more than four months despite treatment with antibiotics. For less virulent infections, drug treatment is usually a cheaper, safer alternative (though drugs, too, can be overused). In the new JAMA study, Kleinman’s team reviewed the medical charts of 6,429 kids, all under 16, whose doctors had recommended the procedure. Even making "generous assumptions" about the likely benefits, the researchers found that a quarter of the proposed operations were inappropriate, since less invasive alternatives were available, while another third were as likely to harm the recipients as help them.
   Parents needn’t panic about ear tubes that are already in place. Once successfully implanted, the tiny devices provide drainage for six months to a year, then come out by reducing health costs by hundreds of millions of dollars every year. [br] In the 1940s ______.
选项 A、tympanostomies were never performed.
B、tonsillectomies were done too frequently.
C、there were too few American pediatricians.
D、American children had fewer ear infections.
答案 B
解析 原文"The procedure，known as tympanostomy，may not be as common as the tonsillectomy was in the 1940s"告诉我们，在40年代扁桃腺切除术是十分普遍的，就像今天的tympanostomy，似乎也是有些过分了。我们不知道当时是否有tympanostomy (A)，也不知道现在美国是否缺乏儿科医生(C)。D说美国很少有儿童患耳朵感染。从这么多的tympanostomy手术来看，可能感染者也不少。
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