Research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other medical centers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has determined that neither of the two most common surgical procedures for apical vaginal prolapse are is significantly superior to the other for anatomic, functional or adverse event outcomes.
Long-term survivors after esophagectomy with gastric pull-up can enjoy a satisfying meal and good quality of life according to a new study from a team of researchers at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles. This study concluded that pessimism about the long-term quality of life after an esophagectomy on the part of treating physicians and patients is unwarranted. It is published in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, an official publication of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
Garrett is just the second person whose life was saved with a new, bioresorbable device developed at the University of Michigan.
Researchers presented results today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) Specialty Day in New Orleans that adolescents who have an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction are more likely to demonstrate osteoarthritic changes later in life.
While many overweight patients intend to lose weight after joint replacement, a study at Hospital for Special Surgery finds that although some are able to achieve this goal, equal numbers of patients actually gain weight after hip or knee replacement. Patients who lose weight have better joint replacement outcomes in terms of function and activity level two years down the road.
A technique called distraction osteogenesis can create increased length of the upper jaw in patients with cleft lip and palate deformities, reports a study in the March issue of The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, edited by Mutaz B. Habal, MD, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
– Despite the benefits of surgery for early stage pancreatic cancer, it remains under-utilized for patients with this deadly disease, according to a new national analysis of trends and outcomes. Physician-scientists at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine presented their findings and strategies to increase rates on March 13 at the Society of Surgical Oncology Cancer Symposium in Phoenix.
A study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery finds that electromyography (EMG) testing to determine the quality of donor nerves can improve the outcome of nerve transfer surgery to restore function in patients with a brachial plexus injury.
Total knee replacement for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) presents greater challenges, as RA patients generally have more health concerns than patients with osteoarthritis. However, researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery found that same-day bilateral knee replacement surgery is safe for select patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Two common procedures to treat pelvic organ prolapse without vaginal mesh are comparable in safety and efficacy, according to research published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers also found that behavioral and pelvic floor muscle therapy (BPMT) did not improve urinary incontinence or prolapse symptoms in affected women.
Surgeons in France have successfully replaced the aortic valve in two patients without opening the chest during surgery. The procedure, using totally endoscopic aortic valve replacement (TEAVR), shows potential for improving quality of life of heart patients by offering significantly reduced chest trauma. It is described in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, an official publication of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) is the first hospital in the country to utilize OrthoSecure(TM), a novel computer-based system for operating rooms that is designed to improve the care of patients undergoing a knee or hip replacement and to minimize the number of implant parts that are erroneously opened and not used. OrthoSecure(TM) could lead to increased efficiency and significant saving to the U.S. health care industry.
After hip replacement surgery, many patients are anxious to resume driving. A new study using a sophisticated interactive driving simulator finds that patients can safely get back behind the wheel after four weeks, challenging the conventional wisdom that they should wait six weeks.
People who sustain the most common type of hip fracture are at increased risk of complications. A special type of MRI developed at Hospital for Special Surgery can show a detailed image following fracture repair, without the distortion caused by metal surgical screws that are problematic in standard MRIs.
One of the biggest concerns of patients considering knee replacement is the amount of pain they will have after surgery. Although it is a very successful operation overall to relieve arthritis pain and restore function, persistent postoperative pain can be a problem for some individuals. Researchers determined which patients were at highest risk for increased postoperative pain based on demographic and surgical variables.
Major League Baseball players who undergo Tommy John surgery are less likely to regain the performance level they had before surgery, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. The study is the first to show a link between the surgery and declining pitching performance at the professional level. It also involved the largest cohort of professional pitchers to date to examine the issue.
The news that you will need surgery can prompt many questions and a lot of anxiety. Beyond details about your medical condition and treatment options, what should you ask your surgeon before the operation? Whatever you need to ask to be comfortable with the decisions you make about your care, says Robert Cima, M.D., a colon and rectal surgeon and chair of Mayo’s surgical quality subcommittee.
As more people in the United States become severely obese, bariatric surgery has grown in popularity as a corrective measure; however, serious neurologic complications can result immediately after surgery or even years later (Juhasz-Pocsine et al, Neurology 2007;68(21):1843-50).
• A new urine test can distinguish among different causes of kidney dysfunction in kidney transplant recipients. • If validated in larger multicenter study, the test may allow patients to avoid invasive kidney biopsies.
Boston--A new prostate cancer study by researchers from Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden, Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues finds a substantial reduction in mortality for men under age 65 with localized cancer who undergo a radical prostatectomy.
A gynecologic oncologist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is the first in the central New Jersey region to have performed what is known as a single-incision hysterectomy using a robotic method. The ‘single port’ method strategically places the incision near the belly-button to achieve a somewhat ‘scarless’ surgery, where in some patients the scar is barely noticeable to not noticeable at all. A typical robotic hysterectomy would involve four or five such incisions. Mira Hellmann, MD, performed the procedure February 20.
A new approach to breast reconstruction surgery aimed at helping patients’ bodies get back to normal more quickly cut their postoperative opioid painkiller use in half and meant a day less in the hospital on average, a Mayo Clinic study found. The method includes new pain control techniques, preventive anti-nausea treatment and getting women eating and walking soon after free flap breast reconstruction surgery. It has proved so effective, it is now being used across plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic.
Throat cancer survivor Charlie Guinn had stage IV throat cancer. Thanks to the new trans-oral robotic surgery he received at UNM Hospital and UNM Cancer Center, he's enjoying life again.
A neurosurgeon used a minimally invasive technique to repair an extremely rare blood vessel problem that caused bleeding on the brain of a three-year-old girl.
STONY BROOK, NY, February 27, 2014 –Tina Truglia had experienced excruciating pain in her jaw for nearly a decade and was misdiagnosed with everything from mumps to mono. Eager to have her upcoming wedding free of pain, she flew from Flagstaff, Arizona to Long Island, foregoing a week of bridal festivities, including her bachelorette party, for an appointment with Mark Marzouk, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Stony Brook University Hospital.
To pull or not to pull? That is a common question when patients have the potentially dangerous combination of abscessed or infected teeth and the need for heart surgery. In such cases, problem teeth often are removed before surgery, to reduce the risk of infections including endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of the heart that can prove deadly.
Removing an infected tooth prior to cardiac surgery may increase the risk of major adverse outcomes, including risk of death prior to surgery
Transplanting lungs from donors with a history of heavy smoking does not appear to negatively affect recipient outcomes following surgery
Broadly suppressing the immune system after lung transplantation may inadvertently encourage organ rejection, according to a new study in mice.
• Robotic-assisted surgery for prostate cancer has fewer positive surgical margins than open surgery. • Patients who had robotic surgery needed fewer additional cancer treatments afterward. • Higher upfront robotic costs may be offset by a reduction of additional cancer therapy costs after surgery due to better cancer control outcomes.
Retrieving organs from brain-dead donors is logistically challenging and time consuming in hospitals. However, a new study shows that moving organ donors from hospitals to a regional stand-alone facility with a designated operating room for retrieving organs is more efficient and lowers costs considerably.
Each year, approximately 600,000 total knee replacement procedures are performed in the United States, a number that is expected to rise in the next decade as the population ages. UC San Diego Health System is the first in the nation to use iASSIST, a computer navigation system with Bluetooth-like technology that improves surgical precision and accuracy in total knee replacements, decreasing the need for revision surgery.
New twilight sedation for advanced heart valve disease patients undergoing the minimally invasive TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve replacement, cuts hospital stay, cost, and additional medications.
Many premature infants suffer a life-threatening bowel infection called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Researchers at Loyola University Health System have identified a marker to identify those at risk for the infection, enabling doctors to employ early preventive strategies. These findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery.
Two types of regional anesthesia do not make patients more prone to falls in the first days after having knee replacement surgery as some have previously suggested, according to a study based on nearly 200,000 patient records in the March issue of Anesthesiology.
Without administering a simple blood test in the first few days after surgery, 85 percent of the heart attacks or injuries patients suffer could be missed, according to a study in the March issue of Anesthesiology. Globally, more than 8 million adults have heart attacks or injuries after surgery every year, and 10 percent of those patients die within 30 days.
A simple fall at the playground can have far greater health consequences for children who are obese
Robotic-assisted technology is designed to add precision and accuracy, with less radiation exposure, during angioplasty — as interventional cardiologists place balloons and stents inside arteries to restore blood flow to the heart.
Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have discovered a test to identify benign pancreatic cysts which could spare patients years of unnecessary tests and potential surgery.
The Whipple procedure, used to remove tumors from pancreatic cancer patients, is one of surgery’s most extensive and challenging operations. Now, surgeons are using a minimally invasive robotic surgical system to perform the surgery.
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) are pleased to announce the publication of the consensus guideline on margins for breast-conserving surgery with whole-breast irradiation in stages I and II invasive breast cancer.
“This study provides several important observations,” said Dr. Raymond Onders, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “Most notably, laparoscopic diaphragm mapping – an electronic reading of the diaphragm nerves – is safe and can be performed in multiple centers with success. In addition, early diaphragm mapping can quickly determine if a phrenic nerve injury is complete, allowing for early ventilator planning and prevention of weaning trials if we find the patient will not be able to be weaned from the ventilator. Finally, DP can successfully wean traumatic cervical SCI patients as evidenced by 72 percent of the implanted patients being completely weaned from ventilators and 36 percent with complete recovery and DP removal.
Patients waiting for liver transplants who develop hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS), a lung disorder associated with end-stage liver disease, are eligible to move up on the wait list. In a new paper published in Gastroenterology, however, Penn Medicine researchers argue the so-called “exception points” given to these patients award some HPS patients unnecessary priority over others on the list, which includes about 17,000 patients.
Patients with massive burns causing complete loss of the facial skin pose a difficult challenge for reconstructive surgeons. Now a group of surgeons in China have developed an innovative technique for creating a one-piece skin flap large enough to perform full-face resurfacing, reports The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Nondirected donor gave kidney without an intended recipient setting off a chain of 13 transplants at UAB Hospital and Children's of Alabama, with more transplants to come. Some of those transplanted in the chain would not have otherwise had the opportunity without UAB's incompatible kidney transplant program.
Dogs aren’t the only pets who sometimes bite the hands that feed them. Cats do too, and when they strike a hand, can inject bacteria deep into joints and tissue, perfect breeding grounds for infection. Cat bites to the hand are so dangerous, 1 in 3 patients with such wounds had to be hospitalized, a Mayo Clinic study covering three years showed. Of those hospitalized, two-thirds needed surgery. Middle-aged women were the most common bite victims, according to the research, published in the Journal of Hand Surgery.
People seriously injured by violence are no more likely to die in the years after they are shot, stabbed or beaten than those who are seriously injured in accidents, Johns Hopkins researchers have found.
An artificial heart valve device that does not require major open surgery has received FDA approval. The heart valve is deployed with a catheter, which is inserted in an artery in the groin and guided up to the heart.
Johns Hopkins surgeons report they have devised a better, safer method to replace bone removed from the skull after lifesaving brain surgery. The new technique, they say, appears to result in fewer complications than standard restoration, which has changed little since its development in the 1890s.
Wake Forest sophomore Timothy Lee built a robotic painting arm that could one day lend doctors a hand in practicing complex, robot-assisted surgeries without having to step foot in an operating room.
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