Surgical Fires

From MSNBC:

ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health research agency, estimates that there are 50 to 100 fires out of the more than 50 million surgeries performed in the United States each year. Such fires kill one to two people annually, and 20 percent of patients suffer serious, disfiguring injuries, according to ECRI, which investigates medical procedures and devices.

At left, Kathleen Osberger after surgery and at right, before surgery.
Most fires are caused when oxygen builds up under surgical drapes during the use of electric surgical tools that cut or remove tissue or control bleeding, the institute says.

Let's just say that while I've never had a patient injured from a fire in the operating room, with all the equipment used, and the oxygen rich environment, it's not that rare of an occurrence if I've seen it as many times as I have...

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Skippy Free

From ABC News:

...there is a race among researchers to find an allergy-free peanut, considered the holy grail of sorts in food science.

Researchers at North Carolina A&T State University this week say they've found a way to deactivate peanut allergens in the lab, but it still has to be tested on people.

"The farmer can go on and produce whatever they produce. … We remove the allergen through processing rather than breeding of the peanut itself," explained Mohammed Ahmedna, who works on the study.

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Maybe An Airbag?

From Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hip protectors designed to absorb and disperse the impact of falls are not effective in preventing hip fractures among nursing home residents, according to trial results reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In fact, the study was stopped after 20 months due to lack of effectiveness, Dr. Douglas P. Kiel, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his associates report.

In their paper, the investigators explain that most hip protectors either divert the energy of a fall using a hard shell or absorb the energy of a fall by using foam padding.

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Cell Phone Safety

From Medical News Today:

A major UK three-year study has indicated that mobile phone masks do not make you sick - they are not the cause of the symptoms of ill health claimed by some people. Such symptoms as nausea, fatigue and anxiety may feel genuine, according to the Environmental Health Perspectives study, but they are not triggered by the masts.

Mast Sanity, a campaign group, says the findings are unreliable because 12 participants in the trial dropped out due to ill health.

Numerous people during the trial blamed the masts for their symptoms when they were told they were turned on. However, dozens thought the mast was on when it was off and still felt the symptoms, while others felt well when they thought the masts were off (when they were, in fact, on). The study indicates the problem is a psychological one.

Then again, the "River of Denial" runs deep, and cell phones seem to get blamed for a lot of unrelated things.

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TB Patient Goes Home

From CBS News:

Andrew Speaker, the tuberculosis patient who sparked an international public health scare in May, was released from National Jewish hospital on Thursday after successfully completing inpatient treatment, hospital officials said.

Interestingly, he took an air ambulance home. I suppose that no one wanted to sit next to him for that ride!

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Magnetic Eyes

From Engadget:

It looks like the Navy's Office of Naval Research dipping its toes into the oft-explored business of eye-tracking, with a recent patent application revealing plans for some magnetic contact lenses designed to aid fighter pilots and others in need of a hands-free control option.

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Hi Def X-Rays

FUJIFILM Corporation (President and CEO Shigetaka Komori) has announced the debut of the new Dynamix HR System, a high-definition, next-generation computed radiography system and UR-1 high-definition imaging plate for non-destructive testing. A next-generation model of the Fujifilm Computed Radiography digital X-ray inspection system, the Dynamix HR offers high-resolution reading at intervals of 50 micron meters (1 micron meter is 1/1,000 mm), twice the reading density of the previous model, making it capable of detecting even microscopic flaws.

More.

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Erecords

From Forbes:

Despite many hospitals' reluctance to make the investment, installing an electronic medical records system pays for itself in less than two years, a new study finds.

Such a system was put in place at the University of Rochester Medical Center, N.Y., and recouped its initial cost within 16 months, say the authors of a study in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

I'd settle for less wandering around the nurses station searching for charts.

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Listening To iPod Can Be Shocking

From The Register:

A 37-year-old Canadian jogger suffered "multiple injuries to his head" after ill-advisedly standing under a tree during a thunderstorm while listening to his iPod, the Vancouver Sun reports.

The unnamed victim, reportedly an active church musician and enjoying "religious music" at the time of the incident, was struck by lightning near Vancouver in June 2005. The impressive list of injuries he suffered has just been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and includes burns tracing a pattern from his chest, where he was packing his iPod, to his ears - following the path of the device's earphone cables.

Just one more way that the iPod can be hazardous to your health.

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Pricey Veggies Are Better

Organic fruit and vegetables may be better for you than conventionally grown crops, US research suggests.

A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found almost double the level of flavonoids - a type of antioxidant.

Flavonoids have been shown to reduce high blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease and stroke.

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Sponsored By Hersheys?

A new German study suggests that eating a small amount of dark chocolate every day could lower blood pressure without increasing weight or other health risks.

The study is published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Other studies have already suggested that eating large amounts of foods rich in cocoa can lower blood pressure. This is thought to be because of the polyphenols in the cocoa, a group of beleficial plant chemicals that includes flavanols.

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Finally! A recommendation that patients will actually follow!

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It's Not the Economy, Stupid!

There is no better measure of the power of the health care issue than this: Eighteen months before Election Day, presidential candidates in both parties are promising to overhaul the system and cover more — if not all — of the 44.8 million people without insurance.

Their approaches are very different, reflecting long-standing divisions between the parties on the role of government versus the private market in addressing affordability and availability of health insurance.

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Oh great! I can hardly wait for the Clintons to try and turn American care into the Canadian system, but without any malpractice reform.

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