surgery
One of the least-used options for treating disabling seizures caused by epilepsy is the most effective, according to a review of research findings appearing in the Feb. 25 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Neurology. The findings were published by the American Academy of Neurology in association with the American Epilepsy Society and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Designed to address guidelines for surgical treatment of epilepsy, the analysis urges tens of thousands of patients nationwide -- and their doctors -- to consider surgery for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) as a viable and desirable alternative to medication rather than a treatment of last resort. MTLE is the most common form of epilepsy.
In studies using rats, researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the Imperial College, London, have found evidence that the chemically inert gas xenon can protect the brain from the neurological damage often associated with the use of the heart-lung machine during coronary artery bypass surgery. The researchers say that xenon appears to block receptors on nerve cells in the brain that can be "overstimulated" in response to the surgery. This overstimulation can lead to nerve cell damage or death.
A study of long-term, low-dose warfarin to prevent the recurrence of the blood clotting disorders deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism resulted in such a high degree of benefit to the patients -- without significant adverse effects -- that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health has stopped the study early.
Bleeding after cardiac surgery is a major clinical problem, consuming up to 20 percent of the nation's blood supply. Despite some understanding of the risk factors that contribute to increased blood loss, there is still considerable patient-to-patient variability. Scientists have now shown that a common genetic variation contributes to a patient's tendency to suffer bleeding complications.
To assess the wear and tear on jet engine parts, mechanics used an old technology called ferrography to run the aircraft's lubricating fluid through a magnetic device to separate out metal shavings and other ferrous engine debris. A University of Rhode Island researcher uses a similar process to assess the wear and tear on artificial hip and knee joints so patients can reduce the number of follow-up surgeries they must undergo or reduce the time spent in revision surgery.
Men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer have typically been faced with "good" news and "bad" news. The "good" news - if there is such a thing when cancer is involved - is that most men are effectively cured of their cancer once the prostate is surgically removed. The "bad" news is that the two most notable side effects of prostate surgery - impotence and incontinence - can be very devastating. Fortunately, significant advances have been made on both fronts, and a Wisconsin urologist has helped develop new techniques to minimize both incontinence and impotence.
Older patients with lowered immunity to certain common bacteria found in the gastrointestinal tract are more likely than younger patients to suffer cognitive decline after coronary artery bypass surgery, according to a new analysis by Duke University Medical Center researchers.
Within the gut resides a class of bacteria known as gram-negative bacteria. These bacteria can release endotoxins into the bloodstream as a result of action of the heart-lung machine -- which circulates the blood throughout the body while surgeons operate on a stopped heart -- triggering a cascade of immunological events including systemic inflammation.
Men who are depressed before their coronary artery bypass graft surgery are more likely to be re-hospitalized or suffer pain and reduced quality of life six months after their bypass operation, compared with men who are not depressed before the surgery, according to new research. Rates of hospitalization for heart attack or artery disease rose among bypass patients with pre-operative depression, say Matthew M. Burg, Ph.D., of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System and colleagues.
They are proteins that cut other proteins, enabling a wide range of essential functions such as wound healing, blood clotting and formation of muscle and nerve cells.
But serine proteases also can cut a path of destruction, contributing to the plaques involved in heart disease and Alzheimer's and to extensive birth defects as well when something goes awry. Understanding this sort of physiological crescendo called a protease cascade is a goal of Dr. Ellen K. LeMosy, developmental biologist at the Medical College of Georgia.
Researchers have shown that removing a portion, instead of all, of the spleen, can successfully treat children with a variety of congenital anemias while preserving important splenic immune function. In the largest study of its kind in the U.S., the researchers performed the surgery, known as a partial splenectomy, on 25 children with congenital forms of anemia caused by abnormal red blood cells. Typically, these children suffer from fatigue, jaundice and extreme vulnerability to infections that can require repeated hospital or physician visits. Many also need repeated blood transfusions.
A team of researchers has found that drugs commonly used to anesthetize children can cause brain damage and long-term learning and memory disturbances in infant rats. The researchers report their findings in the Feb. 1 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. "We frequently perform surgical procedures on children, including premature infants, and those procedures have become increasingly more complex and take longer to perform," says the study's lead author Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Virginia Health System. "That means many pediatric patients are being exposed to anesthetic drugs more frequently and for longer periods of time. Our results would suggest that might be problematic."
A new study suggests that brief exposures to pure oxygen not only help chronic and other hard-to-heal wounds heal completely, such exposures also help wounds heal faster. Ohio State University surgical scientists used topical oxygen therapy to treat 30 patients with a total of 56 wounds. The therapy required placing a bag containing pure oxygen over the wound for 90 minutes a day. More than two-thirds of the difficult wounds healed with the oxygen treatment alone.
Contrary to common belief, early successful treatment and control of epileptic seizures with appropriate medications does not necessarily guarantee that seizures will always be controlled by those medications in the future, according to a study published in the January 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes predicts the length of remission after chemotherapy and the overall survival of patients with ovarian cancer, according to researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center and the Center on Women's Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Their findings, which are presented in the January 16th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, constitute the first proof that a spontaneous immune response against the tumor dramatically impacts the clinical course of ovarian cancer. These novel findings generate hope that immune therapies may significantly prolong the response to chemotherapy and improve the survival of patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma.
Many lizards shed their tails, and then regrow them, as a survival mechanism - and now researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia believe understanding this act could also help them treat a lymphatic condition in humans. The University of Adelaide research team have had their findings summarised in the latest edition of New Scientist. They are examining how a lizard's lymphatic network responds when it loses its tail, and how this could be applied to the human condition of lymphoedema (the swelling of limbs due to the body's lymphatic system being impaired). Secondary lymphoedema is a common side effect associated with mastectomies and other similar forms of radical surgery.
