Surgery News and Research

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Women with breast cancer do not get potentially life-saving information

New published data from a large pan-European survey indicate that the majority of postmenopausal women with early breast cancer taking post-surgical endocrine therapy are not involved in making key decisions about their treatment, nor are they given sufficient information to make informed treatment choices that could affect their long-term outcome.

28 May 2007

Researchers shed light on the link between chronic inflammation and atherosclerosis

Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other inflammatory rheumatic diseases are associated with a high rate of death from heart disease.

28 May 2007

Wake-up call to physicians caring for hepatitis B patients

Many patients with chronic hepatitis B are deficient in their understanding of the lifelong disease and often do not comply with the drug regimens necessary to control it, according to a new UCLA survey that suggests improved patient involvement in disease management decisions could be the key to fixing this problem.

28 May 2007

Heart-assist device gives Culver City man a better quality of life

Mark Heiner of Culver City reads books, paints artistically, takes walks and does laundry – activities that would be considered routine except for the fact that a four-pound disk implanted in his abdominal cavity is keeping his blood flowing.

28 May 2007

Reversal of coma with an injection of glue

Neurosurgeons and neuroradiologists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center injected a biosynthetic “glue” to seal off a spinal fluid leak and restore a comatose patient to consciousness.

28 May 2007

New method predicts hip joint decay from chemotherapy

St. Jude investigators say they have found the best way for predicting when patients will need future surgery to repair hip joints that have deteriorated because of pediatric leukemia or lymphoma treatment.

27 May 2007

Study challenges conventional wisdom about cancer cells

A team of St. Jude investigators challenged conventional wisdom about the eye cancer retinoblastoma by using a mouse model that allowed them to study the tumors as they develop and grow.

27 May 2007

Very-low-birth-weight newborns face higher risk of death at community hospitals

More than 20 percent of very small babies who died in California between 1991 and 2000 might have lived had they been born in different hospitals, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

24 May 2007

Researchers find alteration in gene associated with uterine cancer

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today announced the discovery of previously unrecognized alterations in a gene called FGFR2 in a subset of endometrial cancers, the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States.

24 May 2007

Double-standard exists in the way that men and women donors are valued by the fertility industry

When Sociologist Rene Almeling decided to look into the operations of U.S. sperm banks and egg agencies, the UCLA Ph.D. candidate in sociology thought she knew what she would find.

24 May 2007

Same-day coronary angiography and surgery safe for many patients

Mayo Clinic researchers discovered it is safe -- and much more convenient and less costly -- for many patients to undergo coronary angiography and elective valve surgery on the same day, it is reported in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

24 May 2007

New technique effective in closing accidental colonoscopy wounds

To prevent colon cancer, the second leading cause of United States cancer deaths, the American Cancer Society recommends that after age 50 people undergo colonoscopies every ten years to detect signs of that disease , either actual tumors or precancerous polyps.

24 May 2007

Concentrated radio waves proide new approach to treating precancerous esophagus condition

The use of concentrated radio waves appears to be a safe and effective way to "burn" away abnormal cell growth in the esophagus that can be a precursor of cancer.

24 May 2007

Moderate alcohol consumption lowers women's risk of heart attack

Women who regularly enjoy an alcoholic drink or two have a significantly lower risk of having a non-fatal heart attack than women who are life-time abstainers, epidemiologists at the University at Buffalo have shown.

24 May 2007

Link found between gastric bypass and several serious neurological conditions

A decade-long study by neurologists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock has found a link between the increasingly popular weight-loss surgery known as gastric bypass and several serious neurological conditions.

24 May 2007

Obese people more likely to have persistent or severe persistent asthma

A new study presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference finds that obese people are significantly more likely to have persistent or severe persistent asthma than their thinner counterparts.

24 May 2007

Minimally invasive device for treating recurrent stress urinary incontinence in women, safe and effective

A minimally invasive device for treating recurrent stress urinary incontinence in women has been shown to be safe and effective in early clinical trials and is now under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says Emory University School of Medicine urologist and trial co-principal investigator Niall Galloway, MD.

24 May 2007