Researchers recently conducted the largest study to date to evaluate the effectiveness of weight loss surgery in a Chinese population of individuals with obesity and type 2 diabetes. In the study, which is published in Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, surgery provided substantial and sustainable effects on weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol over five years. Source: […]
What Congenital Heart Disease Means for Your Child
Congenital heart defects are the most common of all birth defects. But if your child is diagnosed with one, it feels like you’re entering strange, uncharted territory. Instead of welcoming your newborn to a cozy nursery at home, you’re glued to the hospital, immersed in a crash course on an unfamiliar condition such as ventricular […]
DNA test reveals if surgery patients are at risk of scarring badly
Risk-free mouth-swab DNA test reveals if surgery patients are at risk of scarring badly after an operation First-of-its-kind screening takes less than a minute and is completely risk-free The simple, first-of-its-kind mouth-swab DNA test takes less than a minute After a week results can indicate the chances of an abnormal scar developing Surgery patients can […]
What it's like to stay awake during brain surgery
‘It’s Aliyana, not Ariana,’ Kelly Ann corrected her doctor when he started chatting about her horse. She could be forgiven for being a little snappy – he was asking the question while operating on her brain. Kelly Ann Alexander, 41, had an awake craniotomy – an operation where doctors work on the brain and wake […]
Efforts to minimize painkillers after surgery appear to be working
The opioid epidemic has been wreaking misery and death across the nation for years. In 2017 alone, opioid overdoses killed more than 47,000 people – 10,000 more deaths than were caused by traffic accidents that year. For many people who abuse opioids, the problem begins with opioid prescriptions from their doctors for pain relief. Government […]
Anxiety, depression linked to more opioid use after surgery
Surgeons wielding their life-saving scalpels, laparoscopic tools, or other implements to repair or remove what ails their patients understand all too well that pain is an unavoidable part of the healing process. Yet the current opioid crisis has made the standard prescribing practices for these highly effective analgesics fraught with risk. New research from Michigan […]
Anesthesiologists Reveal The Craziest Things People Say After Surgery
Anyone who’s received anesthesia can attest that the medication makes them feel pretty loopy. Although many won’t remember their experience, it’s fairly common to say some wacky things after waking up. On Reddit, a user asked anesthesiologists to post the funniest things people have said while under gas. One commenter relayed how a patient stroked […]
Patient's Chest Catches on Fire While Having Heart Surgery
All medical procedures have risks, but you don’t typically think of combustion as a common operating room problem. However, a 60-year-old Australian patient’s chest caught fire during emergency heart surgery, according to a release. So, how exactly does this happen? The patient was previously diagnosed with a chronic lung disease and had remaining air pockets, […]
Finally, a tool to predict response to chemotherapy before bladder cancer surgery
University of Colorado Cancer Center led clinical trial data show that a predictive tool called COXEN may show which bladder cancer patients will respond to pre-surgical chemotherapy, a step towards allowing doctors to offer such chemotherapy to patients likely to respond, while moving more efficiently to other treatment options with patients unlikely to benefit. Results […]
360-degree immersive video of surgeon performing cancer surgery
New technology has allowed the public to immerse themselves in a cancer operating theatre by filming a complex operation performed by Professor Tim Underwood in 360 Degrees. The seven-hour procedure on Janet Jenkins, 66, involved removing part of her esophagus and the cancerous tumour within it, before reconstructing her stomach to form a new esophagus […]