Medical Procedure News

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Underuse of pancreatectomy in the United States

More than half of eligible patients with operable, early-stage pancreatic cancer don't undergo potentially life-extending surgery, suggests a study published online in the Annals of Surgery, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

8 Jun 2007

More New Yorkers getting colonoscopies

More New Yorkers are getting life-saving colonoscopies than ever before, the Health Department announced, and people of all races and incomes are benefiting.

8 Jun 2007

Surgery underway to separate twins joined at the head

Neurosurgeons in the U.S. have begun the first of many operations to separate 3-year-old twins who are joined at the head.

7 Jun 2007

Percutaneous ethanol injection helps manage bone metastasis in thyroid cancer patients

Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI), an injection of ethanol (alcohol) through the skin directly into a bone tumor to kill cancer cells, may be a valuable ancillary treatment for thyroid cancer patients whose cancer has spread to the bone.

5 Jun 2007

Groundbreaking robotic pancreatectomy

Surgeons at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago performed a groundbreaking robotic pancreatectomy in a 39-year-old man to relieve him of debilitating pain.

1 Jun 2007

Coping with side effects from pelvic radiotherapy

Cancer patients about to undergo pelvic radiotherapy or who have had the treatment and are experiencing some of the potentially worrying and embarrassing side effects, now have a new free resource to turn to thanks to Cancerbackup and Cancer Research UK.

30 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

First ever lung transplant on HIV patient performed in Italy

Italian surgeons have performed the world's first lung transplant on an HIV patient.

28 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

Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy with robot technology can improve survival rate for prostate cancer patients

Performing less invasive laparoscopic surgery using robotic technology may improve survival rates for prostate cancer patients, according to a study by urologic oncologists at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's multidisciplinary Genitourinary (GU) cancer center.

22 May 2007

First beating heart transplant procedure in the US

Protected by its own nutrients and blood supply, a beating heart supported by an investigational organ preservation device was successfully transplanted into a 47-year-old man with congestive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension on Sunday, April 8.

18 May 2007

Dramatic increase in Caesarean sections

The report, published in the prestigious international journal, the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, found that the rise could not be explained by increases in clinical reasons for caesareans such as complications in pregnancy or labour/delivery and was more likely due to societal factors.

17 May 2007

New gallbladder removal procedure

In a first-of-its-kind procedure, a surgeon at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia successfully removed a woman's gallbladder through a single incision in the patient's belly button.

17 May 2007

New guidelines for blood conservation during cardiac procedures

A team of medical experts led by a Virginia Commonwealth University anesthesiologist and a thoracic surgeon from the University of Kentucky has established a set of clinical guidelines to help physicians decrease the need for blood transfusions in high-risk patients during cardiac operations.

17 May 2007

Surgeons rebuild war veteran's nose using his own body parts

It took only seconds for the Humvee to flip over and crash on a highway near Camp Bucca in southern Iraq in August 2005.

17 May 2007

Mount Sinai uses breakthrough treatment for spinal cancer

The Mount Sinai Medical Center is the only hospital in New York City using the Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery System on spinal cancer.

16 May 2007

Role of PCI and coronary artery bypass grafting for the treatment of patients with left main coronary artery disease

Coronary artery bypass surgery has been the preferred treatment for patients with a blockage in the left main coronary artery, the conduit that supplies blood to about two-thirds of the heart.

15 May 2007

Is the 90-minute deadline for inflation of angioplasty balloons really critical?

In the treatment of heart attack, the 90-minute goal for inflation of an angioplasty balloon in a blocked coronary artery to restore normal blood flow is so revered it's been codified in clinical guidelines, accreditation standards, and pay-for-performance programs.

15 May 2007