Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
Although the pandemic H1N1 flu tends to strike younger people, it can be life-threatening when older people are infected, California researchers said.
In the first four months of the pandemic, 1,088 people in the state needed inpatient care or died of the pandemic flu strain, according to Janice Louie, …
Who’s dying from the H1N1 flu pandemic?
There is plenty to criticize in our bungling trek toward health reform. Leaders on the right, left and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have sidestepped the crucial conversation of controlling the cost of care, in favor of partisan rhetoric about “death panels” and “rationing care.” Worse, the entire focus of reform has centered on spending billions of dollars on technology solutions that will only make marginal changes in the cost and …
Medicine needs to get back to hands-on basics, rather than focusing on technology
Originally published in Insidermedicine
Nearly half of women who undergo surgery and other treatments for breast cancer report having persistent pain in and around the treatment area a year or more later, probably because of nerve damage, according to research published in the November 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Here is some information about neuropathic, or nerve, pain:
• It is a type of pain that occurs when …
Many women report nerve-related persistent pain after breast surgery
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Rhode Island Hospital, located in Providence, will pay $150,000 and install video cameras in all of its operating rooms after performing its fifth wrong-site surgery since 2007, according to the state’s Department of Health.
The hospital will also have to open its ORs to an inspector who will observe surgical procedures and protocols for at …
Will video cameras in the OR decrease the rate of wrong-site surgery?
Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Victor G. Dostrow, MD
Dementia is a terminal illness. However, people with advanced dementias often languish in skilled nursing facilities, far from the ministrations of specialists. And, with reasonable luck, they have directives that specify that they are not to be taken to the hospital in the event of a respiratory arrest. Consequently, most of us are not privy to the mechanisms of demise in such situations.
How do people with dementia die?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Expectant mothers may enjoy listening to their unborn babies’ heartbeats, but they shouldn’t rely on home fetal heart monitors to provide an accurate picture of fetal health, researchers say.
The devices may provide false reassurance in some situations, according to Abhijoy Chakladar, MD, of Princess Royal Hospital in West Sussex, …
Do home fetal heart monitors give mothers false reassurance?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
Vaccination does not appear to cause autism or other health problems in children with inborn errors of metabolism, a researcher said here.
In a retrospective analysis, children with such conditions were not more likely than normal children to visit emergency rooms or need hospital care after vaccination, according to …
Vaccines do not cause autism in children, whether or not they have inborn errors of metabolism
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Charles Bankhead, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Clostridium difficile infection has spread from the hospital to the community but has proved manageable thus far.
From 1991 to 2005, the incidence of community-acquired C. difficile in Olmsted County, Minn., quadrupled but still remained less common than the hospital-acquired gastrointestinal infection, Sahil Khanna, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in …
Clostridium difficile infection is spreading from the hospital to the community
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
Children appear to shed particles of the H1N1 pandemic flu virus longer than adults do, which may have implications for how long they stay out of school, a researcher said here.
The finding comes from an analysis of an outbreak in a Pennsylvania elementary school in May and June, …
How long should children stay out of school after H1N1 flu?
by Brian E. Moore, MD
Two neuropathologists are prominently spotlighted in an article by Malcolm Gladwell in the October 19 issue of The New Yorker. The article explores a provocative question raised by autopsy results on football players: namely, should football be illegal?
Featured are Dr. Ann McKee, neuropathologist at the Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Massachusetts and Dr. Bennet Omalu, forensic neuropathologist and San Joaquin Valley (CA) chief medical examiner. Drs. McKee …
Football is linked to dementia, and why it should be banned from high schools
Originally published in HCPLive.com
What defines a “disease?” At what point does a collection of symptoms and causes make the transition from “condition” to disease? Is it when a consensus forms around a concrete, observable, and repeatable set of biochemical and/or physiological processes and outcomes? Surely there is little doubt that diabetes or hypertension qualify as a disease under the standard paradigm. …
Rheumatologists debate whether fibromyalgia is really a disease
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Nancy Walsh, MedPage Today Contributing Writer
Opportunities to learn how to perform skin cancer examinations during medical training are inadequate, a survey of residents found.
More than half (55.3%) of residents said that they had never observed a skin cancer examination, 75.8% said they’d never been taught to perform one, and 57.4% had never practiced doing …
Are doctors getting enough skin cancer exam training?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
President Barack Obama’s declaration that the H1N1 pandemic flu is a national emergency doesn’t mean the course of the outbreak has changed, health experts said.
But as the volume of cases increases, the declaration allows doctors and hospitals more flexibility in handling the expected surge in patients, they said.
“I …
What does H1N1 pandemic flu as a national emergency mean?
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Doctors are often compelled to make quick decisions in life threatening cases with only limited information. Unfortunately, pregnant women are now going to be put in the same situation.
The H1N1 flu has taken an extraordinary toll among pregnant women. A new vaccine is now available. Because of the nature of the emergency, there has not been time to do any long term studies of the vaccine. Yet pregnant women will …
Why pregnant women should get the H1N1 flu vaccine
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington Correspondent
If parents refuse to vaccinate their children, it’s ethical and legal to dismiss the child as a patient, a pediatrician told attendees of the American Academy of Pediatrics meeting here.
“In the middle of treatment, you can’t just say, I’m done,” Gary Marshall, MD, of the University of Louisville …
Should doctors fire young patients if their parents refuse to vaccinate them?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Crystal Phend, MedPage Today Senior Staff Writer
Reports of stroke patients who were accidentally exposed to eight times the normal radiation dose during diagnostic CT scans at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles are prompting safety warnings and soul searching among radiologists nationwide.
Over an 18-month period, 206 patients at the center received 3 to 4 …
When patients receive too much radiation from CT scans by mistake
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Just over half — 54% — of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases in southwest England occurred when the baby was co-sleeping in the same bed as a parent, a case-control study showed.
That compares with 20% of infants among randomly selected families and controls deemed to be at high …
Will co-sleeping with your infant increase the risk of SIDS?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Peggy Peck, MedPage Today Executive Editor
Men who opt for minimally invasive prostate surgery — often with a helping hand from a robot — are twice as likely to have genitourinary complications as men who have a traditional prostatectomy.
That finding is especially troubling because the use of robotic-assisted minimally invasive prostatectomy has increased exponentially in …
Does robotic surgery for prostate cancer help patients?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Here’s a case where texting may actually improve a teenager’s health: Text message reminders appear to be effective in getting young liver transplant patients to take their immunosuppressive medications, a small study showed.
In 41 patients with a median age of 15, there was a significant improvement in medication compliance …
Texting young liver transplant patients to take their medications
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Most patients who underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for respiratory failure survived their struggle with pandemic H1N1 flu, according to a study by researchers from Australia and New Zealand.
Of the 68 patients treated with ECMO during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, 54 were still alive as of Sept. 7, according to …
One way to treat patients with severe H1N1 flu
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