That’s a question I was asked more than once, in light of this week’s story about the birth of octuplets.
For the answer, I’ll refer to this article in Slate. The largest reported number of fetuses in a single womb is 15.
The limit is not so much the number of fetuses, but the combined size and weight. As Christopher Beam explains, “once the total …
Mariana Bridi da Costa, a 20-year old Brazilian model, tragically died early Saturday morning from Pseudomonas aeruginosa urosepsis.
How can this happen?
Miss Bridi da Costa initially presented on December 30th, and was diagnosed with kidney stones. An ultrasound, plain film, or CT scan likely would have been done to confirm the diagnosis. I assume that a urinalysis was also performed, and if …
A primary care doctor guides us through the abdominal physical exam.
He deciphers the much-written notation of “Abd: Soft, NT, Normal BS, no HSM or masses*,” and explains what physicians look for when they poke, prod, percuss, and listen to when examining a patient’s belly.
You’d be surprised at some of the things we find simply by pressing on the abdomen.
* For those who need translation, …
Jett Travolta tragically passed away yesterday, after being found unconscious in his hotel room by his caretaker. There is speculation that he had a seizure and hit his head on a bathtub.
Travolta apparently had a long history of medical problems, including Kawasaki disease, which is a vasculitis that primarily affects children. It is one of the most common causes of acquired heart disease in children, and …
This is an important article to read.
Many of the incentives today encourage doctors to order more advanced imaging scans, like CTs and MRIs. This expensive practice is invariably caused by this common scenario, as “patients who are in pain often demand scans hoping to find out what is wrong, doctors are tempted to offer scans to those patients, and then, once a scan is done, it …
Surgeons use markers to identify the right body part for procedures. Unfortunately, they care become contaminated with bacteria which can lead to surgical site infections.
Enter the Sharpie: “As it turns out, the ink used in a Sharpie pen has an alcohol base, making it an unexpected germ fighter.”
Who knew? The Sharpie is probably also many times cheaper than the single-use “sterile” pen used …
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady recently underwent repair of his anterior cruciate ligament at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. His doctor was Neal S. ElAttrache, who’s a renowned orthopedic surgeon and former team physician of an NFL team.
Unfortunately, his post-op course has been complicated by an infection. On his website, TomBrady.com, he acknowledged this and said that the original procedure was …
Most physicians and patients think that the MRI scan is one of the more sensitive and comprehensive diagnostic tests.
However, there is significant variability in reading and performing the scans, which makes having it done at a reputable institution more imperative:
Magnetic resonance machines, though, vary enormously, and not just in the strength of their magnets. Even more important, radiologists say, is the quality of the imaging …
Comedian Bernie Mac dies at age 50 from pneumonia. Sad news.
He had been recently hospitalized, and as recently as two days ago, it was reported he was stable and responding well to treatment. What happened?
There is very little medical information to go on. It was known that he had …
WSJ Health Blog: “Russert’s doctor Michael Newman said the tough-questioning but congenial host of NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ had been under treatment for asymptomatic coronary disease, but that it was under control with medication. He was carrying excess weight, Newman observed, but he got regular exercise and he performed well on an exercise stress test in April.”
GruntDoc: “I therefore propose a new sign in …
How to choose a cardiologist. Notice that of these three traits, availability comes first.
It doesn’t matter how good you are if your access stinks. (via Dr. Wes)
Maria writes: “I’d like your take on what you think constitutes a ‘good’ medblog . . . I am continually surprised with what people like about medblogs. Some people like brief links, some people like critical discussions, some people like stories.
This ultimately all boils down to opinion, but I’d like to know what traits you like in medblogs.
Can you start by opining that you strongly dislike …
And other real, unlikely doctor names.
The petite 44-year old, who declined to give her last name, paid 150 pesos ($3) for a hilot, or traditional midwife like Minda, to crush her three-month old fetus using rough strokes and pincer-like grips on her belly.
The procedure, which can also involve pounding the lower abdomen to trigger a miscarriage, is called a massage.
(via Healthbolt)
Lead poisoning is the common answer. However, new analysis (found in the Beethoven Journal – which I never knew existed) sheds new light:
Christian Reiter has conducted months of painstaking work applying CSI-like methods to strands of Beethoven’s hair.
He says his analysis, published last week in the Beethoven Journal, found that in the final months of the composer’s life, lead concentrations in his body spiked …
What does that mean to you? More patients than you think are confused by drug labels:
Did that mean a total of two, or a total of four? A third of patients who were deemed literate got confused. A more clear instruction would be: “Take two tablets in the morning and two tablets at night.”
An ER nurse tells this story of a tech, which led to her fear of female genitals, or kolpophobia.
The NY Times with a profile. Unsurprisingly, they lack corporate support:
Not surprisingly, Cafepharma lacks corporate fans.
Pfizer, the subject of the site’s most popular bulletin board, declined repeated requests to discuss Cafepharma. Shreya Prudlo, a spokeswoman, said that Pfizer monitored every “communication channel” that reached its constituency, and that each needed to be “viewed based on their accuracy and integrity.”
Medtronic, which has the busiest Cafepharma …
Overuse of muscle cream lead to this teen’s death:
A medical examiner blamed a 17-year-old track star’s death on the use of too much muscle cream, the kind used to soothe aching legs after exercise.
Arielle Newman, a cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, …
Stunning news. The Boston Globe on Flea, his trial and how his blogging ultimately led from a possible victory to settlement:
As Ivy League-educated pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman sat on the stand in Suffolk Superior Court this month, defending himself in a malpractice suit involving the death of a 12-year-old patient, the opposing counsel startled him with a question.
Was Lindeman Flea?
Flea, jurors in the case …
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