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Conventional wisdoms? Er, no

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr P D Welsby
Infectious Diseases Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK; P.Welsby@ed.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

John Kenneth Galbraith, the Canadian economist, invented the phrase "the conventional wisdom" (CW), pseudofacts that everyone knew to be true, were hardly ever questioned but which, when challenged were often not evidence based. Medical textbooks are full of such CWs.

Differentiating between sharp and blunt appreciation? Simple. The CW is to ask the patient "Is this sharp or blunt?" when administering a sharp or blunt stimulus. Er, no. Differentiation can be quite difficult. Have you tried it on your own feet? A more useful question is to ask, when alternating a sharp and blunt stimulus, "Is there any difference between these?"

The CW when testing for cerebellar intention tremor in the arms is to use the finger to nose test. Er, no. Cerebellar intention tremors get worse as the target is approached and this may cause an affected patient to jab their face. Ask the patient to touch your variably . . . [Full text of this article]