Feature Channels: Surgery

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Sepsis, a life-threatening bacterial infection of the blood, is an unwanted and costly complication to patients and the health care system. New research at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has identified major elective surgeries in which sepsis occurs most often post-procedure, along with extenuating conditions such as age, gender and type of hospital that increase the risk for sepsis. The study, published in the December issue of the Annals of Surgery, forms a basis to create post-operative procedures to reduce the risk of infection for patients, thereby saving lives and reducing health costs.

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UCLA surgeons performed the first western U.S. hand transplant in an operation that began one minute before midnight on Friday, March 4, and was completed 14-and-a-half hours later, on Saturday, March 5.

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Dr. Mark Plunkett, the pediatric heart surgeon who helped establish the Kentucky Children’s Heart Center at the University of Kentucky in July of 2008, performed the 500th heart surgery on Feb. 15, 2011.

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At its annual cancer symposium, the Society of Surgical Oncology will present the 43rd annual James Ewing Layman's Award to Kimberly T. Duchossois of Barrington Hills, Ill., for her deep commitment and long-term efforts to improve the quality of cancer treatment and help cancer patients get information they need to make wise decisions about their care.

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Surgeons at University of Utah Hospital have performed the hospital’s first implant of a new-generation left ventricular assist device (LVAD) using the HeartWare HVAD.

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When fluctuating hearing loss, with frequent bouts of nausea and vertigo caused New York flight attendant Patricia Gilbert to miss several work shifts, she sought answers from the medical community.

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In the two decades since the start of "Back to Sleep" campaign, doctors and surgeons have seen a surge in the number of infants with position-related head deformities called deformational (or positional) plagiocephaly. Amid often-conflicting recommendations, there's still a lack of solid scientific data to guide diagnosis and treatment of this problem, according to a special topic section of the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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ECMO team treats its 2,000th patient, a twin boy born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

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Robotic surgery offers the same or better results than minimally invasive laparoscopic procedures for treating kidney disease, and can potentially help more patients because it is not as difficult for surgeons to learn, according to a new study led by Henry Ford Hospital specialists.

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A comprehensive "prehabilitation" exercise program for patients with severe knee arthritis can improve strength and functional ability before knee replacement surgery, reports a study in the February issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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A new 'closed-loop' system can precisely adjust levels of anesthetics and analgesic drugs in patients undergoing surgery, reports a study in the March issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

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Researchers compare surgeon volume to institutional volume for surgeries.

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A team of heart experts at Johns Hopkins has found that dual lab tests of blood clotting factors accurately predict the patients whose blood vessels, in particular veins implanted to restore blood flow to the heart during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), are more likely to fail or become clogged within six months. One test gauges the speed of blood platelet clumping and the other measures the level of a clumping chemical byproduct.

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Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified practical strategies to implement environmentally friendly practices in operating rooms and other hospital facilities that could result in vastly reduced health care costs and pose no risk to patient safety.

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The current focus on medical errors isn’t quite as new as it seems. A Johns Hopkins review of groundbreaking neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing’s notes, made at the turn of the last century, has turned up copious documentation of his own surgical mishaps as well as his suggestions for preventing those mistakes in the future.

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Cataldo Doria, M.D., Ph.D., Nicoletti Family Professor of Transplant Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University; director of the Division of Transplantation; and co-director of the liver tumor program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is the first surgeon at Jefferson to perform a robotically-assisted liver resection.

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Physicians in Houston implanted a heart valve through a small puncture hole in the patient's leg, as an alternative to open heart surgery.

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Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is highly effective and provides durable results five years after surgery, according to a large, prospective study by Hospital for Special Surgery investigators.

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Sports hernias are commonly found in individuals with a mechanical disorder of the hip and can be resolved with surgery to fix the hip disorder alone in some cases, according to a recent Hospital for Special Surgery study.

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A new study has identified factors that predict the ability of a professional dancer to return to professional performance after hip arthroscopy surgery.

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A team from the UC San Diego Center for Transplantation performed a rare, life-saving cardiac surgery called heterotopic heart transplantation, where a patient's own heart remained in place while a second donor heart was implanted.

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Neurosurgeon Lee Eric Tessler, MD is among the first in NY to use a new hand-held CO2 laser for surgeries on tumors buried deep within the base of the skull. The laser allows surgeons to remove these difficult-to-reach tumors in less time, with lower risk of complications, less anesthesia and a smaller possibility of damage to healthy tissue.

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For years, doctors have used platelet rich plasma (PRP) to promote healing in various surgeries, but a recent study demonstrates that a type of PRP did not improve healing after rotator cuff repair.

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Knee replacement surgery takes far more time to conduct in overweight and obese patients than in normal weight patients, according to recent research at Hospital for Special Surgery.

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Patients who undergo elective orthopedic surgeries at high-volume, regional hospitals have better surgical outcomes and experience fewer complications than those who undergo those surgeries at local hospitals.

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A rinsing technique with betadine that costs just a little over one dollar per patient may significantly reduce the infection rate following total knee and hip joint replacement surgery according to a study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center.

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The University of Michigan Transplant Center celebrated a milestone recently, performing its 500th lung transplant. But there’s much more to this story than a number.

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Breast-cancer patient Kristin Wiginton is the first to be treated at UT Southwestern Medical Center with high-beam radiation using the Accuray CyberKnife System, which offers improved cosmetic results, less radiation exposure to surrounding tissue and a shorter treatment period.

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Brain surgery takes much more skill than properly placing sutures in a foam skull, but aspiring doctors have to start somewhere, as 140 seventh- and eighth-grade students will learn at the annual “Brainworks” event at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Friday, Feb. 18. Cedars-Sinai’s program seeks to encourage early interest in neuroscience.

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A new clinical trial at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center is among the first to test surgery specifically for Type 2 diabetes. The aim of the study is to understand whether surgery can control diabetes, as well or even better than the best medical treatment available today. This is the first study of its kind open to patients who are overweight or mildly obese.

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Results of a landmark, seven-year National Institutes of Health-funded trial, Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS), demonstrate clear benefit for babies who undergo fetal surgery to treat spina bifida, the most common birth defect in the central nervous system.

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Researchers at The George Washington University Medical Center played a key role in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study of a surgical procedure to repair a common birth defect of the spine, which if undertaken while a baby is still in the uterus, greatly reduces the need to divert, or shunt, fluid away from the brain. The study was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on February 9, 2011.

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Performing delicate surgery in the womb, months before birth, can substantially improve outcomes for children with a spina bifida, a common, disabling birth defect of the spine.

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Apica Cardiovascular, a Georgia Tech and Emory University medical device startup, has received a $5.1 million investment. The company's product simplifies and standardizes the technique for opening and closing the beating heart during cardiac surgery.

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Washington University School of Medicine researchers report they have identified a gene that limits damage to the lung during acute stress from illness, trauma or transplant.

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Patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery and had elevated levels of the cardiac enzymes creatine kinase or troponin in the 24 hours following surgery had an associated intermediate and long-term increased risk of death, according to a study in the February 9 issue of JAMA.

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Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that even small amounts of damage to heart muscle during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is associated with an increased risk of death, even among patients who initially do well following surgery.

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New robotic surgery for throat cancer has fewer complications, faster recovery time.

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Surgeons at UC San Diego Health System have identified a new application for “scarless” surgery tools that are normally used for natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). In what is believed to be the first case in the United States, the surgical team used an existing incision from a previous colon surgery, through which they passed the long, flexible NOTES instruments into the abdomen to treat metastatic liver cancer.

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Accidental damage to thin or buried nerves during surgery can have severe consequences, from chronic pain to permanent paralysis. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine may have found a remedy: injectable fluorescent peptides that cause hard-to-see peripheral nerves to glow, alerting surgeons to their location even before the nerves are encountered.

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A new replacement valve being used at Rush University Medical Center can help patients with damaged heart valves delay or avoid multiple open-heart surgeries.

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Surgery to "deactivate" migraine headaches produces lasting good results, with nearly 90 percent of patients having at least partial relief at five years' follow-up, reports a study in the February issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). (REVISED)

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Dental implants are now a common way to replace a tooth. But a dentist must first determine that an implant restoration can be successful for a particular patient. As an indicator, dentists use the crown-to-root ratio—how much of the tooth extends above the jawbone and how much is in the bone. However, the ideal crown-to-implant ratio for the replacement tooth has yet to be determined.

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Patients who have undergone a facelift rate themselves as looking an average of 12 years younger after surgery, according to a study in the February issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

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Practicing stress management techniques before prostate cancer surgery may help activate the body's immune response leading to quicker recovery, as well as aid in lowering mood disturbance, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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Patients receiving nitrous oxide as part of general anesthesia for surgery may be at increased long-term risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack), reports a study in the February issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

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Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA have published a study in the February Journal of Vascular Surgery® stating that disparities in limb salvage procedures may be driven by socioeconomic status (SES) and access to high-volume hospitals.

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A condition called strabismus, in which eyes are turned inward or outward, can be emotionally debilitating. Many adults suffer for years because they wrongly believe nothing can be done.

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Trauma surgeons find elderly patients have unique needs; cite ways for trauma centers to address them.

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UC San Diego Medical Center performed the West Coast’s first implant of the world’s only FDA-approved total artificial heart. During the four-hour procedure, the patient’s diseased heart was completely removed and replaced by a lifesaving device that rapidly restored blood flow to his entire body.