Medical Procedure News

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WSJ: Top spine surgeons reap royalties, Medicare bounty

The Wall Street Journal examines how the relationship between some doctors and device makers leads to big payments — often from Medicare. Meanwhile, ProPublica explores other conflict of interest issues.

20 Dec 2010

Take charge of your medical tests

Whether you're healthy or ill, there are a variety of medical tests your health care team might recommend for you. A yearly checkup often includes routine tests such as blood sugar and cholesterol levels, vision and hearing assessments, tests for heart functioning and others used to monitor a chronic condition—such as a lung function test for those with asthma.

20 Dec 2010

$FDA approves Medtronic's Arctic Front Cardiac CryoAblation Catheter system for drug refractory PAF$

FDA approves Medtronic's Arctic Front Cardiac CryoAblation Catheter system for drug refractory PAF

Medtronic, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its Arctic Front® Cardiac CryoAblation Catheter system, the first and only Cryoballoon in the United States indicated for the treatment of drug refractory paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). The Cryoballoon treatment involves a minimally-invasive procedure that efficiently creates circumferential lesions around the pulmonary vein, which is the source of erratic electrical signals that cause the irregular heartbeat.

20 Dec 2010

GSI scientists irradiate human tumor tissue to enhance ion beam therapy

Cancer treatment with ion beams developed at GSI is characterized by an excellent cure rate and only minor side effects. The therapy has been routinely in use for a little over one year.

20 Dec 2010

Arthrosurface conducts first knee procedure based on HemiCAP platform technology

Arthrosurface, Inc., the developer of less-invasive joint resurfacing systems, announced that it has performed its first biological knee procedure based on the company's proven HemiCAP® platform technology.

19 Dec 2010

Nose job gone horribly wrong

A case presented to the Southwark Coroner’s Court heard that doctors continued operating on Kelly McLure, 31, after she suffered her cardiac arrest at the private Belvedere Hospital, in Kent. The paramedics were kept waiting for 45 minutes despite insisting on taking her straight to A&E. However her surgeons Dr Edward Latimer-Sayer and Dr Ahmed el Sayed Moustafa, the anaesthetist, continued with the routine nose and chin procedure after stabilizing her.

19 Dec 2010

InspireMD presents long-term data of MGuard stent technology at the ICI

InspireMD, developer of the novel MGuard(TM), a combination of a coronary stent merged with an embolic protection specifically designed for Acute MI (AMI) patients, received significant exposure at the ICI, Innovations in Interventional Cardiology, meeting this week in Tel-Aviv. InspireMD presented long-term data, including two years of clinical follow-up, to support the Company's MGuard stent technology.

17 Dec 2010

Lightlake acquires US Patent for method of terminating methadone maintenance

Lightlake Therapeutics Inc has acquired US Patent 5,587,381, entitled: 'Method for terminating methadone maintenance through extinction of the opiate-taking responses', using an opioid antagonist as treatment. The Patent also covers treatment for addiction to other legally available opioids and to stimulant drugs such as Cocaine and Amphetamines.

17 Dec 2010

FFR-guided percutaneous coronary intervention provides cost-saving benefits

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced the publication of results from an economic evaluation of the landmark FAME (Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) vs. Angiography in Multivessel Evaluation) trial, which confirmed FFR-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease improves patient outcomes and offers cost-saving benefits to the U.S. healthcare system.

17 Dec 2010

Pediatric plastic surgeon reconstructs patient's jaw

Pediatric plastic surgeon Rohit Khosla, MD, had never seen a case like it: the 12-year-old boy's face ballooned with a rare, aggressive bone tumor. Although it was non-cancerous, the tumor was destroying the patient's jaw. Khosla knew he would need an innovative approach to save the boy's ability to chew.

17 Dec 2010

UIC introduces robotic kidney transplantation surgery for obese recipients

Surgeons at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago are the first to offer robotic kidney transplantation to morbidly obese patients and report fewer complications among this high risk population.

17 Dec 2010

Reuters rates hospitals' cardiovascular program

Loyola University Hospital's mortality rate from heart-bypass surgery is 74 percent lower than the mortality rate at peer hospitals, according to Thomson Reuters Cardiovascular Benchmarks Report.

17 Dec 2010

Scientists receive $1.4 million NSF grant to develop robotic device for heart surgery

In a truly interdisciplinary effort, a team of biomedical scientists and engineers from the University of Houston and physicians from The Methodist Hospital Research Institute are collaborating to develop a platform for image-guided and robot-assisted surgeries on beating hearts that is minimally invasive.

17 Dec 2010

High-dose rate brachytherapy procedure to treat prostate cancer

Beaumont Hospital radiation oncologists have launched a research study to treat men with low to intermediate risk prostate cancer with a single dose of radiation.

17 Dec 2010

RFA highly valuable therapy for controlling cancerous nodules

Researchers from Italy determined that radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a safe and effective therapy for managing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients. The high repeatability of RFA is advantageous in controlling recurrences of cancerous tumors in the liver. Results of this 10-year retrospective study are available in the January 2011 issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

16 Dec 2010

Second brain death exam impacts organ donation rates

Requiring a second exam on a person who is considered brain dead may be unnecessary, according to a study on the impact of a second brain death exam on organ donation rates. The research is published in the December 15, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

16 Dec 2010

Adeona expands and enhances zinc-based product candidate portfolio

Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a developer of innovative medicines for serious central nervous system diseases, announced today that it has acquired access to clinical data supporting a zinc-based therapy for the prevention of infections in the elderly. This acquisition expands and enhances Adeona's zinc-based product candidate portfolio that already includes its proprietary zinc-based tablets for use in the dietary management of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment patients, and age-related macular degeneration.

16 Dec 2010

Miracor granted CE-Mark for PICSO Impulse System to improve ACS revascularization following PCI

Miracor Medical Systems GmbH announced today that the company has received CE-mark for the PICSO® (Pressure-controlled Intermittent Coronary Sinus Occlusion) Impulse System, designed to improve acute coronary syndrome (ACS) revascularization following primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

16 Dec 2010

Pico-Tesla commences pilot study of Magneceutical Therapy in fibromyalgia patients

Pico-Tesla, The Magneceutical® Company, announced that it has commenced a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study of 30 patients who have fibromyalgia. The pilot study seeks to determine whether the application of magnetic fields generated by Pico-Tesla's patented Resonator™ system can be effective as an adjunctive therapy to oral medications in ameliorating the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

16 Dec 2010

Study finds occurrence of infection following surgical procedures

Delaying elective surgical procedures after a patient has been admitted to the hospital significantly increases the risk of infectious complications and raises hospital costs, according to the results of a new study in the December issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

16 Dec 2010