A Loyola University Medical Center surgeon is using electrical stimulation as part of an advanced surgical technique to treat Bell’s palsy, a condition that causes paralysis on one side of a patient’s face.
In the largest study of its kind, Baltimore researchers find that traumatic injury outcomes in patients with organ transplants are not worse than for non-transplanted patients, despite common presumptions among physicians. Additionally, transplanted organs are rarely injured in traumatic events.
In a first-of-its-kind operation in the United States, a team of doctors at Duke University Hospital helped create a bioengineered blood vessel and implanted it into the arm of a patient with end-stage kidney disease. The procedure, the first U.S. clinical trial to test the safety and effectiveness of the bioengineered blood vessel, is a milestone in the field of tissue engineering. The new vein is an off-the-shelf, human cell-based product with no biological properties that would cause organ rejection.
Among mild to moderately obese patients with type 2 diabetes, adding gastric bypass surgery to lifestyle and medical management was associated with a greater likelihood of improved levels of metabolic risk factors such as blood glucose, LDL-cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, according to a study in the June 5 issue of JAMA.
Johns Hopkins researchers have documented huge and somewhat puzzling interstate variations in the percentage of emergency versus elective bowel surgeries. Figuring out precisely why the differences occur is critical, they say, because people forced to undergo emergency procedures are far more likely to die from their operations than those able to plan ahead for them.
New study from University of Michigan Health System shows black patients in most segregated areas more likely to receive surgery at low-quality hospitals
Peripheral arterial disease is a common circulation problem in which reduced blood flow can lead to complications that jeopardize the limbs, possibly even requiring amputation. Procedures known as revascularization have reduced the need for amputations 40 percent over two decades, Mayo Clinic research shows.
Two Johns Hopkins gynecologic surgeons are among the first in the nation to perform a robotic hysterectomy using a single, small incision.
The risk of postoperative infection appears to increase when patients receive red blood cell (RBC) transfusion during or after cardiac surgery, and greater attention to practices that limit red blood cell use could potentially reduce the occurrence of major postoperative infections
Hospitals with low rates of patient mortality appear better able to rescue patients from complications following cardiac surgery.
The temporary placement of umbrella-like, metal mesh filters in abdominal veins to stop potentially lethal blood clots from traveling to the lungs during and after weight loss surgery may actually increase the risk of death in morbidly obese patients, according to new Johns Hopkins research.
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology advises that it is likely safe to continue taking blood thinners before minor procedures such as dental procedures, cataract surgery or dermatologic procedures. The guideline is published in Neurology.
For women undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy, the weight of the tissue flap used affects the risk of an important complication called fat necrosis, reports a study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—Global Open®, the official open-access medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology will help people who take blood thinners decide whether or not to take them during surgery or other medical procedures. The guideline is published in the May 28, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed new guidelines — the first in more than 35 years — to govern the amount of blood ordered for surgical patients. The recommendations, based on a lengthy study of blood use at The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH), can potentially save the medical center more than $200,000 a year and improve patient safety, researchers say.
Children with obstructive sleep apnea who had a common surgery to remove their tonsils and adenoids showed notable improvements in behavior, quality of life and other symptoms compared to those treated with “watchful waiting” and supportive care, according to a new study.
Can treatment with high doses of a cholesterol-lowering statin drug improve outcomes for patients with stroke caused by rupture and bleeding of brain aneurysms? An ongoing clinical trial will soon find out, according to an article in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Nearly 20 percent of kidneys that are recovered from deceased donors in the U.S. are refused for transplant due to factors ranging from scarring in small blood vessels of the kidney’s filtering units to the organ going too long without blood or oxygen. But, what if instead of being discarded, these organs could be “recycled” to help solve the critical shortage of donor organs?
Posterior fossa subdural hematoma (PFSDH) is a serious and rare condition in newborns, generally occurring after difficult deliveries. But with appropriate treatment, there's an excellent chance of good long-term outcomes even in severe cases of PFSDH, reports a study in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Metal-on-metal hip implants can cause inflammation of the joint lining long before symptoms appear, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to identify this inflammation, according to a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery.
Robotic kidney transplantation gives new hope to obese patients previously denied access to life-saving surgery.
Research conducted by the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network, an initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health, has revealed that the long-term success rates of a surgery to treat pelvic organ prolapse are lower than expected.
The initial success rates of the most durable surgery for pelvic organ prolapse, a common condition in women, declines over the long-term, according to data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Expensive, state-of-the-art medical devices and surgeries often are thwarted by the body's natural response to attack something in the tissue that appears foreign. Now, University of Washington engineers have demonstrated in mice a way to prevent this sort of response. Their findings were published online this week in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Transplant surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center have performed a liver transplant on a patient with hilar cholangiocarcinoma -- a rare, often-lethal bile duct cancer. This marks the first time a patient with this type of cancer has been treated with this protocol in the state of Maryland.
While the percentage of kidney transplants involving live donors has remained stable for other minority populations, African Americans have seen a decline in live donors even as more of them receive kidney transplants, according to a study by Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Tumors have the potential to grow locally and invade neighboring organs. Some chest tumors may invade one of the great vessels of the body, the aorta. Surgical removal of these tumors is very challenging and necessitates the support of a heart-lung machine. Therefore there is an increased risk of complication and death. In a small series of patients, placing a stent within the aorta facilitated the subsequent removal of tumor and eliminated the need for heart-lung bypass. A report of these results is presented by Stéphane Collaud, MD, MSc, at the Emerging Technology and Techniques Forum of the 93rd AATS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis on May 8, 2013.
In a revolutionary treatment for early-onset scoliosis (EOS) -- the first ever in the United States -- a team of surgeons implanted adjustable growing rods in two children from California.
Robot-assisted surgery to remove kidney cancers has seen a rapid increase in use, and has both replaced and proven safer than laparoscopic procedures for the same purpose, according to a study by the Vattikuti Urology Institute at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
While the number of people – especially women – who have a minimally invasive procedure to remove kidney stones has risen in recent years, so has the rate of complications related to the surgery, according to a published study by Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Inherited ventricular arrhythmias are an important cause of morbidity and sudden cardiac death in children who have structurally normal hearts. Despite conventional medical therapy, some of these children remain symptomatic with recurrent life-threatening arrhythmias, syncope, or frequent discharges from implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). Video-assisted thoracoscopic left cardiac sympathetic denervation (VATS-LCSD) is a minimally invasive procedure that can help many of these children with refractory cardiac arrhythmias. The results of a single-center experience with VATS-LCSD will be presented during the Congenital Heart Disease Session of the 93rd AATS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis by Dr. Sophie C. Hofferberth, MBBS.
Interspinous spacer implantation—a less-invasive alternative surgical option for spinal stenosis—has a lower complication rate than spinal fusion, reports a study in the May 1 issue of Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Adults with end-stage respiratory failure and pulmonary hypertension requiring ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) have been “bridged” toward lung transplantation with novel lung assist devices such as the Novalung. This and related devices work based on pumpless application of oxygenators. A presentation by David M. Hoganson, MD, and colleagues from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis at the Congenital Heart Disease Session of the 93rd AATS Annual Meeting describes the first time application of this technology to newborns and small children.
When a biologic aortic valve prosthesis fails, the patient often faces a high risk valve replacement through repeat open heart surgery. A new technique, known as Valve-in-Valve, uses minimally invasive techniques to introduce a collapsible aortic heart valve into the damaged valve in order to restore function. This procedure avoids the need to open the chest or use cardiopulmonary bypass (heart-lung machine), according to Leo Ihlberg, MD, PhD, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Heart and Lung Center of Helsinki University Hospital, Finland, who will be presenting the results of a new study at the 93rd AATS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis on May 6, 2013.
Anemia increases operative mortality and morbidity in non-cardiac and cardiac surgical procedures. Anemic surgical patients may require more blood transfusions, raising the risk of transfusion-related complications and increasing costs. For those reasons, optimizing patient readiness by correcting anemia prior to surgery is an important clinical goal. A simple new protocol has been proposed that helps correcting anemia using a single, high dose of recombinant human erythropoietin (HRE) administered only two days prior to surgery. The results of a randomized study will be presented by Luca Weltert, MD, Cardiac Surgery Department of the European Hospital in Rome, during the Plenary Scientific Session of the 93rd AATS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.
Lung cancer is associated with very high mortality, in part because it is hard to detect at early stages, but also because it can recur frequently after surgical removal. The question arises as to what is the best way to follow lung cancer patients after surgery in order to spot problems early enough, before symptoms become obvious, so that patients may still be eligible for new interventions. In this study presented at the 93rd AATS Annual Meeting, investigators from the University of Toronto departments of Thoracic Surgery and Diagnostic Radiology show that minimal dose computed tomography (MnDCT) of the thorax offers much greater sensitivity at detecting new or recurrent lung cancer, with equivalent amount of radiation, compared to conventional chest x-rays.
For more than 40 years, patients under 65 years of age requiring heart valve replacement have had to choose between a mechanical valve that offers life-long durability but requires aggressive warfarin anticoagulation or a biological (cow or pig) valve that will wear out in 10-20 years but does not require anticoagulation. Aggressive warfarin anticoagulation is accompanied by significant annual risk of bleeding, while inadequate anticoagulation of a mechanical artificial valve has been associated with high risk of clotting problems that can cause strokes.
The volume of cases performed at an institution each year has a direct effect on the outcome of surgical procedures, and should always be considered when looking at the benefits of a technique, according to a team of researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
By developing a new way to compare techniques for teaching robotic surgery, doctors report in an upcoming issue of the British Journal of Urology International that surgeons training in robotic surgery learned best when three different teaching methods were used.
Using regional anesthesia instead of general anesthesia in patients with sleep apnea undergoing total joint replacement decreases major complications by 17%. Currently, up to 25% of patients presenting for surgery in the United States have sleep apnea.
Research findings show human central nervous system stem cells foster myelin formation following HuCNS-SC transplantation.
Ninety-eight percent of women undergoing breast augmentation surgery say the results met or exceeded their expectations, according to a prospective outcome study published in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
A University of Michigan study from the “Online First” edition of Anesthesiology found cardiac arrest was associated with improved survival when it occurred in the operating room (O.R.) or post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) compared to other hospital locations.
Mortality rates among patients undergoing surgical repair of acute aortic dissection in the United States appear to be strongly associated with both institution and surgeon case volume, with lower mortality rates among surgeons and institutions annually performing more of the operations
Antidepressant therapy that begins 2 to 3 weeks before coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery and continues until 6 months post-surgery may help some patients recover their mental health more quickly and reduce postoperative pain
Elderly patients who receive anesthesia are no more likely to develop long-term dementia or Alzheimer’s disease than other seniors, according to new Mayo Clinic research. The study analyzed thousands of patients using the Rochester Epidemiology Project -- which allows researchers access to medical records of nearly all residents of Olmsted County, Minn. -- and found that receiving general anesthesia for procedures after age 45 is not a risk factor for developing dementia. The findings were published Wednesday, May 1, online in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
A highly underutilized anesthesia technique called neuraxial anesthesia, also known as spinal or epidural anesthesia, improves outcomes in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement, according to a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery.
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