B13, that number might be interesting, but it would not be meaningful. These forums, like my client base have artificially inflated numbers of failures. A highly successful patient does not seek me out to tell me that they are doing wonderfully. The successful patients are not spending their days on the internet posting their woes.
I'm reviving the paremeterized surgical outcomes thread that I started 5 years ago and that will produce some interesting data. Even with that, the data should not be used for decision making process unless there is a way to 'grade' the patients. If a surgeon is unwilling to take a difficult patient and only 'cherry picks' his results will appear better. The surgeon who is willing to take the 'basket cases' may have results that don't look as good, but are actually far better in many ways.
Mark
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