Using an App to Speed Surgical Recovery

Using an App to Speed Surgical Recovery

To help patients recover faster from surgery, Rush University Medical Center recently has begun providing patients with a computer app that prompts, monitors, and encourages activities that promote healing. Called SeamlessMD,... read more

Stapled versus hand-sewn

Stapled versus hand-sewn

Stapled versus hand-sewn: A prospective emergency surgery study. An American Association for the Surgery of Trauma multi-institutional study. Data from the trauma patient population suggests handsewn (HS) anastomoses are... read more

The Sick Bowel Obstruction Patient

The Sick Bowel Obstruction Patient

A 68-year-old female presents to the ED with abdominal pain, bloating, and nausea which she states began this morning upon wakening about 3 hours prior to arrival. She appears moderately uncomfortable and pale. She is urgently... read more

A Primer on the Perils of Intravenous Fluids – Part 2

A Primer on the Perils of Intravenous Fluids – Part 2

Critically-ill patients all likely have endothelial dysfunction to some degree. resuscitationThis perturbation in microvascular physiology may be underpinned by abnormal glycocalyx structure and function. Sepsis, trauma,... read more

Transfusion in Critical Care – UK Regional Audit of Current Practice

Transfusion in Critical Care – UK Regional Audit of Current Practice

A consistent message within critical care publications has been that a restrictive transfusion strategy is non-inferior, and possibly superior, to a liberal strategy for stable, non-bleeding critically ill patients. Translation... read more

Assessing Postoperative Pulmonary Complications After Noncardiothoracic Surgery

Assessing Postoperative Pulmonary Complications After Noncardiothoracic Surgery

In this multicenter study in 1202 American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 3 patients undergoing noncardiothoracic surgery requiring 2 hours or more of general anesthesia with mechanical ventilation, at least... read more

Rude Surgeons Likely to Make Mistakes

Rude Surgeons Likely to Make Mistakes

A new study finds surgeons with a history of patient complaints about their personalities or attitude are more likely to make mistakes in the operating room. Researchers compared surgical outcomes with patient reports of... read more

Carotid Stenting Technology Has More Appeal

Carotid Stenting Technology Has More Appeal

Ten-year follow-up from the CREST trial and 5-year follow-up from the ACT I study, presented at least year's International Stroke Conference, showed that carotid artery stenting (CAS) holds up well over the long term... read more

CHS using virtual critical care for heart patients

CHS using virtual critical care for heart patients

It just might be the future of medicine. Using cameras, microphones and medical sensors, heart surgeons and cardiologists inside the Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute at Carolinas HealthCare System are treating patients... read more

Biopsy first: Lessons learned from CALGB 140503

Biopsy first: Lessons learned from CALGB 140503

In a carefully monitored cohort of patients with suspected small NSCLC <2 cm, a substantial number are misdiagnosed (benign nodules) or understaged. These patients may not have benefited from a thoracic surgical procedure.... read more

Sepsis Algorithm a Deadly Marker

Sepsis Algorithm a Deadly Marker

An attempt by a Phoenix, AZ, hospital to develop a marker for deadly sepsis instead found that the algorithm identified patients at an increased risk of dying. Increasingly, algorithms govern daily life, playing an important... read more

First deep brain stimulation surgery on stroke patient

First deep brain stimulation surgery on stroke patient

Cleveland Clinic performed the nation's first deep brain stimulation surgery on a stroke patient. This is part of an ongoing clinical trial that’s evaluating whether DBS can improve movement after a stroke. Only 10... read more

Waging War Against CABSIs

Waging War Against CABSIs

Catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CABSIs) are on the decline, according to the 2016 National and State Healthcare-Associated Infections Progress Report. The report, published by the CDC, showed that between 2008... read more

New Warning for Anesthetic Use in Children and Pregnant Women

New Warning for Anesthetic Use in Children and Pregnant Women

The FDA issued a warning that repeated or lengthy use of general anesthetics and sedatives during surgeries or procedures in children aged <3 years or in pregnant women during their 3rd trimester may affect the development... read more

VR Technology for Surgical Procedures Planning

VR Technology for Surgical Procedures Planning

Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland developed a technology that uses CT data to generate 3-D images that can be viewed in a virtual environment to help surgeons as they plan surgical procedures. The technology,... read more

Randomised trials role in surgery

Randomised trials role in surgery

In medical science, as in all walks of life, we are impressed by dramatic effects.  If a new treatment seems much better than an old one initially, there is often impatience to get on and use it, and people question why... read more

Emotional impact on relatives & friends in ICU

Emotional impact on relatives & friends in ICU

Having a relative, partner or close friend critically ill in ICU is a crisis situation that everyone deals with differently. Here people talk about the emotional effects when someone they were related to or close to was ill... read more