Surgery News and Research

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Is there improvement of 'vascular depression' after carotid artery stenting?

Inserting a stent to open a narrowed carotid artery has been found to reduce symptoms of depression that may be associated with carotid stenosis, according to a study in the August issue of Radiology.

25 Jul 2006

Genetic key to treating deadly fungal infections

University of Minnesota researchers have discovered how a prevalent fungal pathogen that causes 10,000 deaths per year in the United States overcomes the effects of antifungal drugs by duplicating a section of one of its chromosomes.

24 Jul 2006

People who donate a kidney to help someone else often suffer financially to do so

Living organ donors, through their altruistic act to improve the health of others, may experience substantial economic losses in a variety of cost categories.

24 Jul 2006

Most women at high risk for breast cancer do not increase their life expectancy by taking the drug tamoxifen

Tamoxifen is an extraordinarily expensive cancer-prevention strategy, costing as much as $1.3 million per year of life saved.

24 Jul 2006

Researchers identify potential ovarian cancer stem cells

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have identified potential ovarian cancer stem cells, which may be behind the difficulty of treating these tumors with standard chemotherapy.

21 Jul 2006

Study reveals the best cosmetic treatment techniques for earlobe tears

Earlobe tears are a common problem facing cosmetic surgeons. For ages ear piercing has been used for individual expression.

20 Jul 2006

Biomira Stimuvax prostate cancer study results published

Biomira Inc. has announced publication of study results showing that Stimuvax, formerly known as BLP25 Liposome Vaccine or L-BLP25, could slow rising Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels in some post-surgical prostate cancer patients

20 Jul 2006

Drugs given to stop nausea and vomiting after surgery help only a few people

Between 10 - 28% of people benefit from taking an anti-emetic drug to prevent nausea or vomiting after surgery - this means that if everyone was given the drug the majority of patients would be exposed to the risk of side-effects without gaining any benefit.

19 Jul 2006

Humidified air inhalation for treating croup

For decades, parents and pediatricians have relied on humid air to relieve the barking cough and noisy breathing of croup, a common childhood condition that sometimes sends worried families to the emergency room.

19 Jul 2006

Drugs for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting

Patients coming out of anesthesia after surgery may experience nausea or vomiting, and are frequently given drugs to prevent this. But the majority of patients won't benefit from these drugs, according to a large new review of studies.

19 Jul 2006

New diagnostic tool for prostate cancer

According to the World Health Organization there are about 250,000 new cases of prostate cancer every year but, when caught in time, the disease has a cure rate of over 90%.

19 Jul 2006

Just how safe are some British hospitals?

Following the release of a new report, mental health trusts in the UK will be instructed to review its approach to patients' safety.

19 Jul 2006

Tagging surgical sponges means patients don't go home with unwanted extras

It appears in as many as 1 in every 10,000 operations in the U.S. involving an open cavity, something inadvertently gets left behind after the patient had been closed up.

18 Jul 2006

Doctors may be over-diagnosing melanoma in sun-damaged skin

A Mayo Clinic physician and colleagues have defined the normal number of melanocytes that are present in Caucasians' sun-exposed skin.

18 Jul 2006

Breast cancer doesn't have to mean losing your breast

Research published in the July issue of The Breast Journal emphasizes that women who have breast implants and are diagnosed with breast cancer have the option of breast conservation, rather than just mastectomy.

18 Jul 2006

Eicosanoids and inflammatory response

Revolutionary new results concerning substances that play major roles in the inflammatory response have been published in the American scientific journal PNAS in two articles from Karolinska Institutet.

18 Jul 2006

New hope for ways to overcome drug resistance in lung cancer

Scientists have suggested it may be possible to reverse drug resistance in lung cancer patients, thereby improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy, according to research published in the EMBO Journal.

13 Jul 2006

A new diagnostic tool for prostate cancer

According to the World Health Organization there are about 250,000 new cases of prostate cancer every year but, when caught in time, the disease has a cure rate of over 90%.

12 Jul 2006

Children with chronic otitis media have biofilms in their middle ears

Direct evidence of bacterial biofilms has been found on the middle ear tissue of children who suffer from chronic ear infections

12 Jul 2006

Vioxx user was a heart attack waiting to happen

In the on-going court battle facing drug company Merck over it's blockbuster painkiller Vioxx, a lawyer for Merck has said one of the plaintiffs was more or less a heart attack waiting to happen regardless of Vioxx.

12 Jul 2006