Scientists from Innsbruck have now discovered this.
“Moonlight surgery: No influence of moon phases or Friday the 13th on the results of total artificial knee joint replacement,” wrote Paul Nardelli from the University Clinic for Orthopedics and Traumatology and his co-authors in the “Archives of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery” . The scientific work was carried out in collaboration with Swiss and French experts.
According to OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation/Paris) data, knee replacement is most common in countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Since the main causes of such interventions are arthrosis due to joint wear and tear with increasing age, the mostly very successful surgical interventions are predominantly “planned interventions” after years of illness. In cases of doubt, additional criteria come into play when selecting the time of operation.
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Moon phases should not be a criterion
According to the scientists, the phases of the moon or even avoiding an appointment on Friday, the 13th day of a month, should not be a criterion. “We retrieved the data from all patients from the Tyrolean archive for knee joint replacements who were operated on between 2003 and 2019,” the scientists stated in their current publication. There were a total of 5,923 patients.
The timing of the interventions was divided according to the four phases of the moon – new moon, waxing moon, full moon, waning moon. There was also an evaluation after Friday, the 13th of a month. The average age of the patients was 69 years, 62 percent were women.
No differences
No matter what day the operation was performed, the results remained roughly the same. The scientists: “There were no significant differences regarding the operation without any subsequent need for correction (revision; note) for the four phases of the moon.” A so-called p-value, which should be less than 0.05, indicates statistical significance. In the study it was 0.479.
The analysis also remained without statistical significance for the comparison of other days of the week and Friday the 13th: the p-value was 0.260 (significant: less than 0.05). The scientists: “Neither the phases of the moon on the day of the surgical procedure nor Friday the 13th had an effect on survival or the assessment (clinical score, note) of artificial knee joint replacement.”
According to the scientists, the results of this study should in any case assure patients of such procedures that a “bad omen”, moon phases or the like would have no demonstrable influence on the objectively determined result of operations for an artificial knee joint. This is independent of the pain problem before the procedure.
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