Most patients who undergo total knee replacement (TKR) are age 60 to 80. More than 90 percent of these individuals experience a dramatic reduction in knee pain and a significant improvement in the ability to perform common activities. However ques…
DETROIT — Patients with obstructive sleep apnea who undergo surgery to improve their breathing get a better night’s sleep and therefore are less drowsy during the day, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
The study…
Artificial joint replacements can drastically change a patient’s quality of life. Painful, arthritic knees, shoulders and hips can be replaced with state-of-the-art metal or ceramic implants, eliminating pain and giving a person a new lease on life….
Alexandria, VA — A multidisciplinary clinical practice guideline, “Tonsillectomy in Children” will be published in the January issue of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery (watch for a new cover and publisher in that issue of the journal). Th…
An enzyme that keeps intestinal bacteria out of the bloodstream may also play an important role in maintaining the normal microbial population of the gastrointestinal system. Since the loss of beneficial bacteria that usually results from antibioti…
HACKENSACK, N.J. (October 4, 2010) — James C. Wittig, M.D. and colleagues will conduct a total of eight research presentations at the upcoming 96th Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons and the 65th Annual Meeting of the Am…
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (September 13, 2010) — USGI Medical, Inc., the Incisionless Surgery company, today announced that updated multi-center results confirm durability of the company’s Expandable Tissue Anchors up to a year or more in a variety o…
One in seven patients experience more pain, physical and emotional problems a year after surgery than before their operation and a quarter have less vitality. Those are the key findings of a research study of more than 400 patients published online …
Gastroenterologists at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., report photodynamic therapy (PDT) appears to destroy the abnormal tissue of Barrett’s esophagus as well as superficial esophageal cancer. Here’s how PDT works. Patients are given an injection of a photosensitizing drug called porfimer sodium (Photofrin). Cells in the body absorb this drug. Normal cells get rid of it, but the drug tends to collect in premalignant and malignant cells. Two days after the injection of Photofrin, physicians insert and endoscope into the sedated patient’s esophagus. An endoscope is a thin, flexible tube with a miniature camera on its tip. Physicians deliver a specific wavelength of red laser light through the endoscope to the targeted cells. The laser light destroys the Photofrin-containing cells. Normal esophageal cells grow back in their place.