Study Shows How to Reduce Inappropriate Shocks From Implanted Defibrillators
Loyola MedicineA landmark study could lead to fewer inappropriate shocks from implanted defibrillators.
A landmark study could lead to fewer inappropriate shocks from implanted defibrillators.
A new anterior approach to hip replacement surgery results in less pain, faster recovery and better mobility. The surgery is performed through the front (anterior) of the hip, rather than the back (posterior). The incision is only about 2 ½ inches long.
Letting children watch a favorite cartoon is an effective and safe way to reduce anxiety before anesthesia and surgery, concludes a study in the November issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
People with diabetes mellitus who undergo heart bypass surgery for multiple blocked arteries have a significantly better 5-year-survival rate than diabetic patients who undergo angioplasty with drug-eluting stents (DES), according to a study published in the November 2012 issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has updated its clinical practice guideline on use of antiplatelet drugs during heart surgery. The new guideline, published in the November 2012 issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, takes into account newly available antiplatelet therapies, new scientific information, and a broader use of antiplatelet drugs such as before lung and vascular procedures.
Research by Dalhousie University student Katherine Mifflin found that having children watch a video immediately prior to surgery can reduce their anxiety during anesthesia induction, the most stressful time for children throughout the perioperative process. Findings were recently published in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.
One of the fastest growing fields in orthopedic surgery is that of a hip specialist. To cater to this burgeoning field, a recent symposium with Hospital for Special Surgery brought together international experts in hip surgery to provide a comprehensive overview of recent advances and trends in treating a range of hip disorders.
A multidisciplinary team from the University of California, San Diego, is developing an alternate means of precisely tagging breast cancer tumors for removal or targeted destruction.
Using regional anesthesia rather than general anesthesia reduces the need for blood transfusions in patients undergoing bilateral total knee replacement, according to a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery.
Most liver transplant candidates who died or were removed from the transplant list actually received one or more liver donation offers, according to a recent UCSF study.
(PHILADELPHIA) – Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have shown that combining distal protection devices with the prophylactic use of the drug nicardipine is more effective at preventing life-threatening complications following a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (angioplasty, stenting) on patients who have undergone previous bypass surgery than distal protection devices alone.
One of the world’s leading bone marrow transplant experts is recommending a significant change to current transplant practice for patients who need marrow or adult stem cells from an unrelated donor to treat hematologic malignancies. Fred Appelbaum, M.D., director of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, asserts that bone marrow – not circulating, peripheral blood, which is the current norm – should be the source for unrelated donor adult stem cells for most patients who require a transplant. The reason: because there is less incidence of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), which can be a debilitating side effect of transplantation.
Robotic surgery offers many benefits over traditional procedures for patients who need urologic, gynecologic or cardiothoracic procedures, including reduced risk of complications and faster recovery. Robotic surgery also offers advanced capabilities to help surgeons provide better clinical outcomes than conventional open and minimally invasive surgeries.
Interventional cardiologists at UK HealthCare's Gill Heart Institute have successfully performed the facility's first two transcatheter aortic valve replacements. The procedure, also known as TAVR, is used for patients with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis who are not candidates for traditional open-heart surgery.
Three in 10 patients receiving a kidney transplant require readmission to the hospital within 30 days of discharge following surgery, according to a Johns Hopkins analysis of six years of national data.
Study shows surgical proficiency levels are achieved at variable rates and suggests current protocols insufficiently evaluate residents’ skills.
A computerized checklist system designed to help physicians identify and use the best methods of preventing potentially deadly blood clots in hospitalized trauma patients dramatically reduced the number of these dangerous venous thromboembolisms (VTEs), new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
New Chicago adult congenital heart network holds first conference to address lack of adequate adult care for congenital heart defect patients.
Use of balloon angioplasty and placement of stents to widen clogged arteries have become standard medical procedure. Further advancing this treatment, drug-eluting devices are now delivering medication directly to the site where it can be most effective. While this technique has met with success in coronary arteries, its use in peripheral arteries is still under study.
Mayo Clinic urologists will discuss findings on enlarged prostates, bladder cancer and other research and will be available to provide expert comment to journalists on others’ studies.
A simple six-question quiz, typically used to assess disabilities in the elderly, could help doctors determine which kidney dialysis patients of any age are at the greatest risk of death, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
• In the largest study of its kind, a variant within the multidrug resistance 1 (MDR-1) gene in kidney transplant donors was linked to a 69% increased risk for long-term failure of transplanted organs. • This variant affects the expression of the protein that the MDR-1 gene encodes, which pumps drugs out of cells. (Immunosuppressant drugs are critical for preventing organ rejection but are also toxic to the kidneys.)
The ideal sedative for oral surgery should make the patient comfortable during the surgery and should wear off quickly enough that the patient can leave the dental chair soon after the procedure. Finding the best plan of anesthetic treatment is essential to the success of dental procedures such as the extraction of wisdom teeth.
Nearly all groups of patients with spinal stenosis—but not smokers—do better with surgery than with nonsurgical treatment, reports a study in the October 1 issue of Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Physical and mental decline are common side effects of hospital stays, particularly among older patients. That can hold true even if someone is hospitalized for just a day or two for a common procedure such as knee replacement surgery.
Women who have a positive urine culture test on the day of surgery for a pelvic-floor disorder are more likely to have a urinary tract infection (UTI) in the first six weeks after the procedure. These findings were presented this past week by researchers from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine at the American Urogynecologic Society’s 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago.
Simple postoperative activities such as deep coughing, getting out of bed, and walking improve pulmonary outcomes in patients who undergo major operations.
Among the latest discoveries in preventive care is a FDA-cleared antiemetic (non-drug) disposable acupressure wrist strip under the brand name Pressure Right®. This product empowers surgery patients to respond more favorably against PONV occurrences and because of improved patient satisfaction there is less demands placed on PACU nurses to treat PONV episodes.
Surgeons analyze more than 59,000 operations in four surgical specialties for postdischarge complications, particularly surgical site infections
Breast cancer patients who have received radiation therapy after mastectomy have more problems related to the use of implants for breast reconstruction, according to a review in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
With rising rates of morbid obesity, the number of bariatric surgery procedures is likely to increase as well, reports a paper in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
The Robotic Surgery Center at NYU Langone Medical Center recently completed its second year offering monthly robotic surgery education sessions for minimally invasive robotic procedures. Michael Stifelman, MD, director of the Robotic Surgery Center teaches and moderates each seminar at NYU Langone using the latest technology in robotic surgery.
Anemia is now confirmed as a risk factor for illness and even death following cardiac surgery, according to a new study. Although preoperative anemia has been linked to adverse events in other types of surgery, this is the first study to tie preoperative anemia with postoperative complications, including death, for all types of heart surgery.
Because there are more risks with having a total knee replacement in both legs at the same time than having a knee replacement in one leg, doctors in recent years have been selecting younger and healthier patients for the bilateral procedure. But some complication rates have risen.
• 70% and 40% of survey respondents found financial incentives to be acceptable for deceased and living kidney donors, respectively. • 45%, 14% and 27% of the public, health professionals, and people with or affected by kidney disease, respectively, supported monetary payment as incentives for living donors.
Strabismus (crossed eyes) can be psychologically debilitating. But many adults who have this defect wrongly believe there's no treatment.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that recovery from an emerging, minimally invasive surgical technique called Laparo-Endoscopic Single-Site Surgery (LESS) was less painful for kidney cancer patients than traditional laparoscopic surgery.
University of Iowa researchers find that total knee replacement surgeries have more than doubled in 20 years. The study, published Sept. 26 in JAMA, suggests the growth is driven by both the increase in the number of older Americans and increased demand among older adults for total knee replacements.
Corticosteroids are often given to children undergoing tonsillectomy to reduce postoperative nausea and vomiting; however, previous research has suggested that corticosteroids may increase the risk of hemorrhage during and after surgery. Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia, and colleagues set to determine the effect of dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, on bleeding. They found that administration of the dexamethasone to children during a tonsillectomy was not associated with excessive, serious bleeding events following surgery compared to patients who received placebo.
Resveratrol—the same natural polyphenol found in red wine—preserves the potent pain-relieving effect of morphine in rats that have developed morphine tolerance, suggests a study in the October issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
Patients given high concentrations of inhaled oxygen during and after cancer surgery may be at higher long-term risk of death, according to a report in the October issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
A neuropeptide hormone called orexin-A—which plays an important role in regulating the normal sleep-wake cycle—also affects emergence (waking up) after anesthesia, reports an experimental study in the October issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
Screening air-dried fine needle aspirations (FNA) for a panel of genetic mutations linked to follicular or papillary thyroid cancer could reduce the need for diagnostic thyroid surgery, according to data presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in Québec City, Québec, Canada.
For patients undergoing neurosurgery at teaching hospitals, there's no "July phenomenon" of increased death and complication rates when new residents start their training, reports a study in the September 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.
A new virtual reality simulator—including sophisticated 3-D graphics and tactile feedback—provides neurosurgery trainees with valuable opportunities to practice essential skills and techniques for brain cancer surgery, according to a paper in the September 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.
The largest U.S. multicenter study of living kidney transplant donor chains showed that 46 percent of recipients are minorities, a finding that allays previous fears that these groups would be disadvantaged by expansion of the donor pool through this type of exchange process.
Severely obese patients who had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery had significant weight loss that was sustained for an average of 6 years after the surgery and also experienced frequent remission and lower incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and abnormal cholesterol levels, compared to participants who did not have the surgery
Each year in Quebec, nearly 6000 people undergo coronary bypass surgery. Recovery is long and quality of life is greatly affected, in particular because most patients experience cognitive deficits that affect attention and memory for weeks or even months after the surgery. However, cognitive training helps to significantly reduce these postoperative complications.
Surgery causes a lasting increase in Alzheimer’s pathology in AD mice, via transient activation of brain inflammation. There was a clear and persistent decrement in learning and memory caused by surgery as compared with inhalational anesthesia – but only in the context of a brain made vulnerable by human Alzheimer-associated transgenes.
For a successful dental implant, the first step for some patients is reconstructive surgery of the jaw. A bone graft to augment the upper jaw can now be achieved by several methods. To assess these methods, their risk of sinus perforation, and the best evaluation technology, researchers put these procedures to the test on 20 human cadaver specimens.