Someone mentioned tonsils below, but in the past, we also had bloodletting, trepanation, and various other unnecessary excisions. Foreskin may one day join the list (who knows, though). This all raises the question of why medicine is practiced the way it is, with so much appeal to authority and memorization, rather than something more intrinsically scientific. Why do bad practices persist for so long?
airstrike|7 years ago
Define "bad". Appendicitis patients invariably survive surgery and go on to live their normal, healthy lives. Until an objectively better solution comes along, we have no reason to not go with what Just Works™. And that's why medicine dislikes change.