Surgery General
Jun 12, 2012
Women with heart failure (HF) appear to have better survival than men irrespective of ejection fraction, according to a large meta-analysis. The mortality rate for women with HF was 25%, compared with...
Jun 12, 2012
One of the great challenges for physicians is to motivate their patients to make positive health behavior changes. Unfortunately, training on motivation, communication, and patient psychology is typic...
Jun 05, 2012
Bariatric surgery is indicated for certain high-risk patients who have clinically severe obesity. A key aspect of care for the post-bariatric surgery patient population is addressing non-surgical aspe...
Jun 05, 2012
There has been increased focus on the need for higher-quality, safer, and more appropriate care in hospitals nationwide. One of the most important components of this mission is to reduce the risk of c...
Jun 05, 2012
The success of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment of small renal masses appears to be strongly correlated with tumor size. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researchers found that 3...
Jun 05, 2012
An investigation of older, opioid-naïve patients who were given an opioid within 1 week of a short-stay surgery has found that this population appears to be frequently prescribed analgesics immediate...
Jun 05, 2012
French research suggests that running is possible for patients after they undergo hip resurfacing arthroplasty, with some runners returning to varying levels of competition postoperatively. Among part...
Jun 05, 2012
A CT scanner (Aquilion Prime CT system, Toshiba) capable of generating 160 unique slices per rotation has been approved by the FDA. The system was designed for facilities that perform a variety of adv...
Jun 05, 2012
The FDA has granted 510(k) marketing clearance for a sheathed bipolar sealer (Aquamantys SBS 5.0, Medtronic) for use in spinal surgeries. The device provides hemostatic sealing capabilities for both i...
Jun 05, 2012
Preliminary data in a report from the CDC indicate that births in the United States dropped 3% between 2009 and 2010 to about 4 million. According to the report, available at www.cdc.gov/nchs, the c...
Jun 05, 2012
Metal-on-metal total hip replacement appears to be associated with high failure rates, according to a large British analysis. Among metal-on-metal replacements, failure occurred earlier with large hea...
Jun 05, 2012
A levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system appears to be effective and well accepted by patients in the long-term treatment of those with moderate-to- severe endometriosis-related pain following c...
May 30, 2012
When patients are facing a cancer diagnosis, they often need help understanding their treatment options as well as the risks and benefits of each choice. Treatment decisions can become fraught with em...
May 30, 2012
Admission for sepsis through the ED, when compared with direct admission to the hospital, appears to be associated with lower early and overall inpatient mortality. Results from a large national sampl...
May 23, 2012
If you wonder why hospitals are under fire for outrageous and often baffling accounting practices, look no further than a brief paper published last month in Archives of Internal Medicine. Hospital...
May 22, 2012
About 80,000 lower-extremity amputations (LEAs) are performed each year on patients with diabetes in the United States. Statistical analyses have shown that the annual incidence of LEA in older patien...
May 22, 2012
Coronary artery disease (CAD) appears to be significantly associated with a 35% increased risk for a prostate cancer diagnosis, according to findings from an American study. CAD was also associated wi...
May 22, 2012
According to CDC research conducted between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of adults whose healthcare providers recommended exercise or physical activity increased from 21.0% to 30.3% in men and from 2...
May 22, 2012
Among Medicare recipients, PCI is one of the most commonly performed cardiac procedures in the United States, with more than 1 million procedures being performed each year. Research has shown that the...
May 15, 2012
Of the 13,000 Americans diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2010, 3,660 were projected to die from the disease. Traditionally, early-stage disease has been treated using radiation therapy (RT) or surgi...