Surgery News and Research

RSS

Study examines Medicare out-of-pocket expenses in the last 5 years of life

Should your 82-year-old dad, who has been declining after a stroke, get hip surgery after a fall? Would your 43-year-old sister, fighting late-stage cancer, benefit from an experimental drug that could have serious side effects? These are wrenching decisions.

14 Dec 2012

New technique may allow more kidney cancer patients to avoid conventional open surgery

Urologists at Henry Ford Hospital have developed a new technique that could make minimally invasive robotic partial nephrectomy procedures the norm, rather than the exception for kidney cancer patients. The technique spares the kidney, eliminates long hospital stays and provides better outcomes by giving the surgeon more time to perform the procedure.

14 Dec 2012

Researchers discover two-faced group of cells at work in human colon cancer

Northwestern Medicine researchers have discovered a "two-faced" group of cells at work in human colon cancer, with opposing functions that can suppress or promote tumor growth. These cells are a subset of T-regulatory (Treg) cells, known to suppress immune responses in healthy individuals.

14 Dec 2012

Scientists isolate cancer stem cells that lead to growth of Wilms' tumours

Scientists have isolated cancer stem cells that lead to the growth of Wilms' tumours, a type of cancer typically found in the kidneys of young children. The researchers have used these cancer stem cells to test a new therapeutic approach that one day might be used to treat some of the more aggressive types of this disease.

13 Dec 2012

Predictor of lymph node metastasis after oral cancer unmasked

The presence of high levels of tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia in early oral squamous cell carcinoma tissue can predict future occult lymph node metastasis, study results show.

13 Dec 2012

Colectomy fails to ease ulcerative colitis sick leave burden

Patients with ulcerative colitis take more time off work than the general population, even after undergoing colectomy, shows a large Swedish study.

13 Dec 2012

Functional rehab avoids surgery for Achilles rupture

Conservative nonsurgical treatment of acute Achilles tendon rupture is as good as surgery, provided the nonsurgical protocol includes functional rehabilitation, Canadian research shows.

13 Dec 2012

Modified eyelid surgery techniques reap rewards

Research suggests that modifying buried suture double-eyelid blepharoplasty may decrease the risk for complications and double-eyelid fold loss rate.

13 Dec 2012

Sirtex unveils new website to learn more about SIR-Spheres microspheres

Sirtex today unveiled a new, comprehensive and easy-to-use global website for doctors, nurses, patients and investors interested in learning more about SIR-Spheres microspheres, a form of radiotherapy targeting liver tumours that is gaining increasingly wide acceptance worldwide.

13 Dec 2012

Opioids already in the body can enhance malignant tendencies of human cancer cells

A study led by University of Chicago researcher Patrick A. Singleton, Ph.D. and published in the journal Anesthesiology has shown that, even without the addition of further opioids such as morphine, opioids already in the body can enhance the malignant tendencies of human cancer cells.

13 Dec 2012

ACS announces creation of Georgia Surgical Quality Collaborative

Today, the American College of Surgeons (ACS), in association with the American Cancer Society, hosted the ACS Surgical Health Care Quality Forum Georgia, the 11th program in a series of events to drive national discussions on effective quality improvement methods that surgeons, physicians and hospitals are using to improve patient safety and reduce costs.

13 Dec 2012

CRI, SU2C form Cancer Immunology Translational Research Dream Team

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) and the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) announce the formation of a Dream Team project dedicated to cancer immunology - "Immunologic Checkpoint Blockade and Adoptive Cell Transfer in Cancer Therapy."

13 Dec 2012

New biocompatible patch can repair congenital heart defects

A painstaking effort to create a biocompatible patch to heal infant hearts is paying off at Rice University and Texas Children's Hospital.

13 Dec 2012

Oxnard-based couple receives gastric sleeve surgeries from leading L.A. expert

Married for over ten years, Oxnard-based couple Roger and Mayra Rosales have enjoyed their kids and family life. Still, one element greatly detracted from their happiness for years. Both struggled with obesity, along with frequent illnesses which were part and parcel to the excessive weight.

13 Dec 2012

Skin vibrations convey information to the brain much the same way as auditory system

When you walk into a darkened room, your first instinct is to feel around for a light switch. You slide your hand along the wall, feeling the transition from the doorframe to the painted drywall, and then up and down until you find the metal or plastic plate of the switch. During the process you use your sense of touch to develop an image in your mind of the wall's surface and make a better guess for where the switch is.

12 Dec 2012

Spotlight on acute respiratory distress syndrome in low-risk surgery

Postoperative acute respiratory distress syndrome is rare in patients undergoing low-risk surgery, but still carries a very high mortality rate, a large study shows.

12 Dec 2012

Radioactive iodine benefits selected papillary thyroid cancer patients

Radioactive iodine may be selectively used for the treatment of intermediate-risk papillary thyroid cancer in patients who are aged over 45 years with tumors smaller than 4 cm that are confined to the thyroid gland, say US scientists.

12 Dec 2012

African–American rectal cancer patients wait the longest for treatment

African–American rectal cancer patients wait longer for treatment and are less likely to receive adjuvant chemotherapy than their non-African–American counterparts, results show.

12 Dec 2012

Bariatric surgery: an interview with Dr Shyam Dahiya

The only long term solution to severe or morbid obesity, as found by the National Institutes of Health, is surgery. When someone has tried diet and other means to lose weight and has failed, surgery is the only option.

12 Dec 2012

Scarless gallbladder surgery performed at Sinai Hospital

Yassar Youssef, M.D., is the first surgeon in Baltimore City to perform gallbladder surgery using just one incision and the da Vinci Surgical System. Because the single incision of about an inch is made in the patient's navel, he or she is left without a noticeable scar.

12 Dec 2012