Surgery News and Research

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Botox could be used to treat incontinence and cystitis

It has won an army of celebrity fans for banishing crow's feet and frown lines, but the use of Botox to combat bladder problems such as incontinence has been hailed as a 'major advance' by a urology expert.

From Sheffield Hallam University 27 Feb 2007

Stanford student is visionary behind global fight againts blindness

Six years ago, as a 19-year-old college sophomore, Jennifer Staple decided to battle preventable blindness so she started the nonprofit "Unite for Sight" with a staff of one: herself.

27 Feb 2007

Cancer Research UK secures fenretinide orphan drug licence

A previously shelved drug could prove effective for treating a group of rare childhood cancers, and Cancer Research UK today announced it has been granted exclusive marketing rights for the drug in these indications by the European Commission and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

27 Feb 2007

New treatment for migraines combines Botox and surgery

Five years ago, Sharon Schafer Bennett suffered from migraines so severe that the headaches disrupted her life, kept her from seeking a job and interfered with participation in her children's daily activities.

27 Feb 2007

Study on waking and dreaming during surgery

In the latest research concerning general anesthesia during surgery, researchers in Sweden say patients who wake up during the procedure and have a clear memory of the event may develop acute distress and emotional reactions, and in some cases long-term psychological symptoms.

25 Feb 2007

Alternative, diet-based method of treating brain cancer

The biologists found that KetoCal, a commercially available high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet designed to treat epilepsy in children, can significantly decrease the growth of brain tumors in laboratory mice.

22 Feb 2007

Why are African American women more likely than White women to die from breast cancer?

Why are African American women 1.5 to 2.2 times more likely than White women to die from breast cancer, despite their lower incidence of the disease? Is it solely because they have less access to medical care? Maybe not, according to a new analysis that will appear in an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Surgery.

22 Feb 2007

New way to identify which men need a second prostate biopsy

A researcher in the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute and Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center has found a way to identify which men need a second prostate biopsy because they may be harboring life-threatening prostate cancer even though they were given a clean bill of health after their first biopsy.

22 Feb 2007

White House orders investigation of military hospitals

The White House on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the treatment provided at U.S. military hospitals to veterans who return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Reuters/Los Angeles Times reports.

21 Feb 2007

A black and white look at breast cancer mortality

African and African American women are more likely to die of breast cancer than their white counterparts because they tend to get the disease before the menopause, suggests new research from the University of East Anglia and the Children’s Hospital Boston in collaboration with researchers in the U.S. and Italy.

21 Feb 2007

Health care professionals should focus on women's lifetime heart disease risk

The 2007 Guidelines for Preventing Cardiovascular Disease in Women -- published today in a special women's health issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association -- also include new directions for using aspirin, hormone therapy and vitamin and mineral supplements in heart disease and stroke prevention in women.

20 Feb 2007

Surgical improvements for Crohn's disease sufferers

Decades of painstaking research has yielded the most in-depth look ever at the management of bowel stricture recurrence in patients who undergo surgery for Crohn's disease. The findings should provide much-needed guidance to surgeons and gastroenterologists battling this tough-to-manage intestinal disorder.

20 Feb 2007

Researchers discover markers that identify breast cancer subtypes resistant to Herceptin

Using gene chips to profile tumors before treatment, researchers at Harvard and Yale Universities found markers that identified breast cancer subtypes resistant to Herceptin, the primary treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer. They say this advance could help further refine therapy for the 25 to 30 percent of breast cancer patients with this class of tumor.

20 Feb 2007

The puzzle of mystery dizziness solved

A new study has found that chronic dizziness, may have a variety of causes including anxiety disorders and brain injury.

20 Feb 2007

Plasma skin regeneration tool may help to reduce wrinkles

A study involving eight patients suggests that multiple low-energy treatments with a plasma skin regeneration tool may help to reduce wrinkles and improve facial appearance with minimal healing time, according to an article in the February issue of Archives of Dermatology.

20 Feb 2007

Procalcitonin helps predict prognosis among those with peritonitis

Monitoring blood levels of a compound known as procalcitonin in patients with peritonitis (a serious intra-abdominal infection) could help identify patients at increased risk of organ failure and death, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.

20 Feb 2007

Chronic dizziness may have several psychiatric and neurologic causes

Chronic dizziness may have several common causes, including anxiety disorders, migraine, traumatic brain injury and disorders in the part of the nervous system governing involuntary activities, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery.

20 Feb 2007

Avastin slows growth of gliomas

Avastin, a relatively new type of drug that shrinks cancerous tumors by cutting off their blood supply, can slow the growth of the most common and deadly form of brain cancer, a pilot study conducted at Duke University Medical Center has found.

20 Feb 2007

Bionic eye offers light at the end of the tunnel for the blind

Researchers in the United States have been given the green light by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to trial a bionic eye implant in blind patients.

18 Feb 2007

HIV protein TAT used to pull protein Bim into cancer cells - helps kill cancer cells

Cancer cells are sick, but they keep growing because they don't react to internal signals urging them to die. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found an efficient way to get a messenger into cancer cells that forces them to respond to death signals. And they did it using one of the most sinister pathogens around - HIV.

15 Feb 2007