Feature Channels: Surgery

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Researchers from Southwestern Texas University's Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and the Veterans Medical Center, both in Dallas, have reported that composite surgeon (overall) volume rather than operation-specific (annual) surgeon volume is a key determinant of in-hospital mortality for elective open abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery (AAA). Their research was published in the December issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery®.

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According to a new UCLA study, cutting key nerves to the heart that control the adrenaline-driven “flight or fight” stress response may help alleviate life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. This is one of the first studies to assess the impact of performing this type of surgery on both sides of the heart to control arrhythmias, called a bilateral cardiac sympathetic denervation (BCSD).

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How a first-of-its-kind surgery devloped at U-M helped a cancer patient keep her voice.

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Patients need less blood after surgery than is widely thought. A new study comparing two plans for giving blood transfusions following surgery showed no ill effects from postponing transfusion until patients develop signs of anemia or their hemoglobin concentration falls below 8 g/dL.

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New research shows that using a liberal blood transfusion strategy in post-operative hip-surgery patients did not appear to improve patients’ recoveries or reduce the rate of death, suggesting therefore, that utilizing a restrictive transfusion approach would be appropriate patient care and conserve blood.

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Contrary to current guidelines, Mayo Clinic researchers have found that angioplasties performed at centers without on-site cardiac surgery capabilities pose no increased risk for patient death or emergency bypass surgery. Results of the study were published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association and have implications for how care can be delivered to heart attack victims and for performance of angioplasties at centers without on-site surgery.

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Some type of adverse event occurs in nearly half of children with severe epilepsy undergoing invasive electroencephalography (EEG) recordings, reports a study in the December issue of Operative Neurosurgery, a quarterly supplement to Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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A 59-year-old woman from upstate New York and a 60-year-old woman from the New York metro area were the first patients in New York state and among the first in the United States to receive transplanted lungs that were assessed and reconditioned in the operating room -- a technique that has the potential to dramatically increase the availability of lungs for transplant. The experimental procedure was performed by Dr. Frank D'Ovidio at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

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Authors offer a variety of viewpoints and information on the 80-hour work week restrictions placed on medical residents as it relates to neurosurgery.

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Guedalia Sawadogo, a 2-year-old girl from West Africa, enjoys drawing with a pen and playing with figurines shaped as people or animals. During a hand therapy session at Stony Brook University Hospital she could only use her left hand for those activities, as her recent surgically repaired right hand went through the rigors of adjusting to a splint. But soon with more healing Guedalia will have the dexterity of normal children to play and learn. On November 14, Alexander Dagum, M.D., Professor of Surgery and Orthopaedics, and Chief, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, performed surgery on Guedalia’s right hand to correct contractures caused by scar tissue healing after a serious burn injury.

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Patients will have a 24-hour hospital stay instead of a weeklong stay, being able to go back to playing golf, for example, a few days later instead of six weeks later with conventional open heart surgery,

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Stephanie Weiss was facing open-brain surgery in June of this year. With 5 brain aneurysms – at least one of which was a wide-neck aneurysm – she was told there was no minimally invasive option for her. But when she went for a second opinion she learned about a new device – approved by the Food and Drug Administration just two months earlier – that made it possible to close even wide-neck aneurysms like hers.

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A new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center sought to determine if breast reconstruction after mastectomy is safe for older women. The answer is yes.

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Study Confirms What is Thought to be Good Practice of Prescribing Aspirin Before Cardiac Surgery

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Investigators from Hospital for Special Surgery have identified factors that are associated with an increased risk of in-hospital falls after total hip or knee replacement surgery. The study may help hospitals design interventions to reduce falls in at-risk populations.

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Neurosurgeons continue to explore minimally invasive surgery with gamma radiation (gamma knife surgery / GKS) in the treatment of brain lesions causing seizures and epilepsy. Studies of the procedure are showing it to be an effective alternative to invasive microsurgery for hypothalamic hamartomas and other lesions that lie deep within the brain.

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Epilepsy surgery is safe, effective and often curative in selected candidates. Although candidates for epilepsy surgery in the United States are estimated between 100,000 and 200,000, fewer than 5,000 such surgeries are conducted each year. The cause of this disparity is multi-factorial, including an unexplained low level of referrals by physicians and choices made by patients themselves. Two studies investigating why patients choose to defer or forego epilepsy surgery.

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Residents at U.S. neurosurgery training programs strongly oppose new regulations that further limit their duty hours, according to a survey study in the December 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 study was performed by Dr. Kyle M. Fargen and colleagues at the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

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U-M researcher finds patients would rather be on waiting list than accept an organ with higher risk of failure.

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A study published in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery®, the official publication of the Society for Vascular Surgery®, reports that a high rate of lower deep vein thromboses (LDVT’s) in critically ill trauma cases can be detected through duplex ultrasound screening (DUS).