Dorys Balboa spent 11 years in pain after injuring her low back. Finally, decompression surgery performed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last year brought immediate, complete relief.
A new study of 30-day outcomes in patients who had endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for aortic abdominal aneurysms (AAAs), revealed that overall morbidity and mortality for all patients were 11.9 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. However when comparing men and women, mortality was almost twice as high in women than men (3.4 percent vs. 1.8 percent) and a broad range of postoperative complications also were more likely to occur in females (17.8 percent vs. 10.6 percent).
The prospect of surgery for a child is a frightening unknown for child and parent alike, and the pre-operative process that most children go through only heightens their anxiety. Research on how hospitals can minimize the anxiety and trauma children face both before and after surgery was recently published in the journal Anesthesiology.
Physicians at The Mount Sinai Medical Center were the first in the country to perform a non-surgical procedure using sutures to tie off a left atrial appendage (LAA), which is the source of blood clots leading to stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib). AFib is the most common sustained heart-rhythm disorder in the United States.
Surgeons at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center have performed the next in a series of groundbreaking single-incision surgeries. Through one small port in the navel, surgeons removed a kidney and ureter and reconstructed a patient’s bladder as part of an innovative cancer surgery.
Researchers have developed a virtual surgery tool that allows heart surgeons to manipulate 3D cardiac magnetic resonance images of a patient's specific anatomy to select the best approach before entering the operating room. In the August issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, the researchers detail how the tool helped them plan the surgery of a four-year-old girl born with just one functional ventricle.
After visiting the emergency room with fainting spells and shortness of breath, a 17-year-old Morningside Heights boy was diagnosed with rare, life-threatening blood clots blocking his pulmonary arteries. To address the problem, surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital successfully performed a pulmonary thromboendartectomy (PTE) surgery -- reportedly, the first time it has been performed on a child in the New York City area.
When planning for surgery, patients too often don't consider the kind of anesthesia they will receive. In fact, the choice of anesthesia can improve recovery, even outcomes.
In the days leading up to Glen Deaton's emergency trip from Trumann to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), large veins that drain blood from his brain were clotting.
Confusion, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision were among his symptoms. An MRI revealed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis "“ a type of stroke caused by a clot that in Deaton's case ran from the top of his head nearly to his neck. With the blood flow stopped like water in a clogged drain, tremendous pressure was on Deaton's brain, resulting in the stroke and hemorrhage despite a shunt to relieve the pressure. He had a seizure, became unresponsive and had to be put on a ventilator.
Female recipients of kidneys from deceased male donors demonstrate an increased risk of allograft failure in the first year after transplant, but show no increased risk after ten years, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The study authors note that proteins on male donor cells may affect the short term success of kidney transplants in women.
Lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) can have a significantly beneficial effect in patients with severe emphysema, according to the first ever study to randomize emphysema patients to receive either LVRS or non-surgical medical care.
Because UVA is one of several dozen U.S. medical centers researching the use of a new, minimally-invasive mitral valve repair procedure, George Forschler did not have to undergo open heart surgery when his leaky mitral valve caused him to become severely ill. The new procedure allows patients to heal faster with fewer complications.
New, less invasive ways to repair heart valves may fundamentally transform how this lifesaving procedure is performed. The July issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter looks at new technologies under study to repair heart valve disorders without open heart surgery.
Over the last four years, heart specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center have implanted an innovative aortic heart valve replacement using a catheter-based approach that does not require open-heart surgery in a total of 100 patients -- the most of any U.S. medical center to date.
UCLA pioneered a new hybrid technique to treat aortic aneurysms in high-risk patients called CESA (combined endovascular and surgical approach). Since 1998, the procedure has been performed on 31 UCLA patients. In a recent issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery, the UCLA surgical team reported excellent results in the first 20 high-risk patients with complex aortic pathology treated with CESA. The technique has been gaining popularity at centers throughout the world for high-risk cases.
Plastic surgeons are turning to mathematics to take the guesswork out of efforts to ensure that live tissue segments that are selected to restore damaged body parts will have enough blood and oxygen to survive the surgical transfer.
Surgeons from Hospital for Special Surgery have identified a drilling technique that improves the outcome of surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The news will be presented during the annual meeting of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, July 9-12, in Keystone. Colo.
Surgical teams at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit successfully completed the first eight-way, multihospital, domino kidney transplant. The transplant involved eight donors "” 3 men and 5 women along with eight organ recipients "” 3 men and 5 women.
A comparison of surgical treatments for sciatica finds that the minimally invasive procedure known as tubular diskectomy does not provide a significant difference in improvement of functional disability compared to the more common surgery, conventional microdiskectomy, according to a study in the July 8 issue of JAMA.
A new study indicates that bone-morphogenetic protein (BMP; a biological agent used to promote bone creation) is used in 25 percent of spinal fusion procedures and is associated with a higher rate of complications than in fusions that did not use BMP, and greater hospital charges for all categories of spinal fusions, according to a report in the July 1 issue of JAMA.
A new report on infection rates from the New York State Department of Health singles out Hospital for Special Surgery as the only hospital in New York State with a statistically lower rate of surgical site infection (SSI) compared to the state average for hip replacement/revision surgery.
While some amount of stress is normal, extreme pre-surgery anxiety in children can contribute to the occurrence of emergence delirium, a distressing incidence of acute behavioral changes experienced when "waking up" from anesthesia. Now, in the July issue of Anesthesiology physicians report melatonin premedication can significantly reduce the occurrence of emergence delirium for children.
A study that completed a retrospective analysis of laparoscopic techniques for vascular procedures in a series of 219 patients, to determine its feasibility for treatment and outcomes with respect to aortic occlusive disease, abdominal aortic aneurysms and aorto-renal bypass in the endovascular era was presented today at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery.
A new study reports that 75 percent of cardiac damage after vascular surgery is asymptomatic or patients' symptoms are concealed by postoperative complaints such as nausea and incision pain. This damage is associated with an increased risk for mortality. Researchers have found that screening for cardiac damage following surgery helps identify high-risk patients who might benefit from more aggressive medical therapy and follow-up after discharge.
Researchers at the University of Mississippi in Jackson presented a study today at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery offering details about how many patients with severe symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency often can be treated with newer, minimally invasive stent treatment technology alone.
The use of fenestrated endografts to treat juxta-renal and para-renal aneurysms (adjacent to and involving the visceral segment of the aorta) after prior aortic reconstruction, is a viable alternative to open repair. These findings are from a study presented today at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery.
Presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery, a new study of 5,600 patients undergoing open lower extremity bypass operations, examines the validity of a single preoperative functional status determination, and its ability to predict major morbidity and mortality for patients undergoing open lower extremity bypass operations.
Dr. Jonathan C. Song, director of the Cornea Institute in The Vision Center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has just returned from a medical mission in which he worked with Syrian and Iraqi eye surgeons at the Syrian city of Dier Ezzor. During the medical mission, May 18-22, Dr. Song saw 50 patients and performed eight corneal transplants and five cataract surgeries. In addition to holding training sessions with Syrian ophthalmologists, he also lectured to 25 Syrian and Iraqi medical professionals about advanced eye surgery techniques.
Three patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center were among the first in the United States to be implanted with a next-generation artificial heart pump called the DuraHeart Left-Ventricular Assist System. The surgeries took place earlier this year. NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia is one of only three centers in the U.S. currently enrolling patients in a clinical trial studying the device.
A short, preoperative team briefing prior to cardiac surgery - where each person on the team speaks - improves communication and reduces errors and costs, according to a pilot study conducted at Mayo Clinic.
Surgeons from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Mass. General Hospital will perform the first Auditory Brain Stem Implant (ABI) surgery in New England on May 20. The ABI, which can restore the sense of hearing to certain patients, has been implanted in about 500 people worldwide.
For the last three years, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has sent a medical team once a year to Kampala, Uganda, the capital of the African nation. In Kampala the UNC Project-Uganda team helped establish a children's heart surgery unit at Mulago Hospital and performed many life-saving heart repair procedures on children who would otherwise go without treatment.
Columbia University Science & Technology Ventures and EndoRobotics, Inc. have entered into an exclusive license agreement to develop and commercialize a micro-robotic imaging and surgical device platform designed to reduce the complexity of minimally invasive surgical (MIS) procedures and improve patient outcomes.
The American College of Surgeons develops an official "Statement on Medical and Surgical Tourism." The ACS advises surgical patients who seek treatment overseas
to actively seek out quality health care providers.
Children hospitalized with concussions should wait until they are seen by a clinician in a follow-up exam before returning to regular sports or playtime activities, according to researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The vast majority of such brain injuries in children do not occur during athletic activities.
Genetic differences can explain why some patients undergoing heart surgery later experience shock and kidney complications, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results indicate that performing a genetic test on patients before they have surgery can help guide treatment after they leave the operating room.
Endovascular, noninvasive thoracic aortic aneurysm repair (TEVAR) is safer than open aneurysm repair (OAR) as it is associated with fewer cardiac, respiratory, and hemorrhagic complications, as well as a shorter hospital stay, according to a study in the May 2009 issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
After surgery to remove the head of the pancreas, invagination of the pancreas into the small intestine resulted in a lower rate of pancreatic fistula, according to researchers at the Jefferson Pancreas, Biliary and Related Cancer Center. The research was published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. It was performed as a randomized trial "“ the gold standard for studies.
On Monday, April 27th at 1:00PM EST, the first real-time broadcast of a partial nephrectomy using the newest robotic surgical system will be featured at the American Urological Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Michael Stifelman, director of robotic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) surgeon Rabii Madi, M.D., became the first in the nation to perform a double robotic surgery, removing a patient's cancerous kidney and cancerous prostate through a single, small incision using the da Vinci Surgical System robot.
MRI has identified five possible causes of patient complications from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructive surgery, according to a study performed at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA, and Sahlgrenska-Molndal University Hospital in Gothenborg, Sweden.
A study published in the May 2009 issue of the journal Anesthesiology reveals that a more conservative regimen of continuous insulin therapy in patients undergoing certain types of non-cardiac surgery could help prevent heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.
A surgeon at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago is one of the first in the Midwest to use a new surgical technique that requires only one small incision to remove a diseased kidney.
Having both lungs replaced instead of just one is the single most important feature determining who lives longest after having a lung transplant, more than doubling an organ recipient's chances of extending their life by over a decade, a study by a team of transplant surgeons at Johns Hopkins shows.
Ten years ago, neurosurgeons removing pituitary tumors typically used a large, bulky surgical microscope and entered through an incision under the lip, causing significant damage to nasal structures. In the accompanying news release, however, we highlight a patient from Riverside, CA, whose tumor was removed endoscopically.
Despite rapid strides in minimally invasive surgical techniques -- most notably, laparoscopy -- traditional open surgery remains the most common surgical option across the United States for people with diseases of the rectum and colon.
A newer, third option is a hybrid -- hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS).
Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have developed a slow-release local anesthetic that could potentially revolutionize treatment of pain during and after surgery. By encapsulating anesthetics in fatty particles, they created a long-lasting, nontoxic nerve block. The research could also have a large impact on chronic pain management, avoiding the need for systemic narcotics.
Up to 80 percent of patients who have surgery complain of nausea and vomiting afterwards, but stimulating an acupoint in their wrists can help reduce these symptoms, finds a Cochrane evidence review.