Surge

Rare surgery performed to remove pancreas, prevent diabetes

In a 12-hour, dual-stage surgery known to be performed at only two other centers in the U.S., doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Tuesday returned a patient's own insulin-producing cells to him after surgically removing his pancreas to eliminate constant, severe pain from chronic pancreatitis. The patient, Leonard Stewart, 47, of Panama City, Fla., remained anesthetized i...

Penn Researchers Use Robotic Surgery

For patients with cancer of the mouth and throat, surgery is a frequent course of treatment, often leading to speech and swallowing dysfunction and external scarring. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, have completed two studies ?the most comprehensive and largest to date ?that demonstrate the effective use...

Scalpel-free surgery could reduce risk of HIV and hepatitis exposure for health care workers

While the incidence of disease from HIV and hepatitis is increasing in the United States, little is known about their prevalence in patients undergoing surgery. Now, researchers have shown that nearly 40 percent of surgeries at The Johns Hopkins Hospital occur in patients who tested positive for a bloodborne germ. "While these rates are alarming, they are not entirely unexpected. General p...

Successful lung cancer surgery not enough to break nicotine dependence in many smokers

A new study has found that close to half of 154 smokers who had surgery to remove early stage lung cancer picked up a cigarette again within 12 months of their potentially curative operation, and more than one-third were smoking at the one year mark. Sixty percent of patients who started smoking again did so within two months of surgery. The study, led by researchers at Washington Univers...

Surgical Robot 'Scrubs In' At UNC, May Be More Precise Than Conventional Surgery

The new surgical assistant at the University of North Carolina Hospitals arrived in February sporting three arms, a computerized brain and a glowing track record in helping to repair heart valves, remove cancerous prostates, bypass blocked coronary arteries and perform gastric bypass operations for morbid obesity. The new arrival is a robotic machine, the da Vinci Surgical System, manufact...

Penn Surgeons Use Completely Robotic Surgery to Successfully Treat Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death among American men. It is estimated that one in six males will develop the disease during his lifetime. However, promising new treatment options have been developed to help combat this threatening disease. One of the most innovative of these treatments is robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (removal of the prostate...

3D ultrasound device poised to advance minimally invasive surgery

Three-dimensional ultrasound probes built by researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have imaged the beating hearts of dogs. The engineers said their demonstration showed that the probes could give surgeons a better view during human endoscopic surgeries in which operations are performed through tiny "keyhole" incisions. If the probes prove beneficial in human testing, the advanc...

Terahertz imaging may reduce breast cancer surgeries

A promising new technique to ensure complete tumor removal at breast cancer excision is introduced in the May issue of Radiology. Researchers used light waves in a newly explored region of the electromagnetic spectrum--the terahertz region--to examine excised breast tissue and determine if the removed tissue margins were clear of cancer, with good results. This technology has the potential...

For one Stanford doctor, the beat goes on during open-heart surgery

In a Stanford Hospital surgery room on a recent afternoon, heart surgeon Kai Ihnken demonstrated how he repositions the beating heart while it's still inside the chest of a 78-year-old man undergoing triple bypass surgery. The surgeon reached into the chest, lifted the beating heart out, then craned his neck to the side, just so, searching for the right spot on the back of the heart to attach the...

Unique equine cataract surgery offered on routine basis

The University of Liverpool is offering a new form of equine cataract removal surgery on a routine basis, which could save the sight of thousands of horses. Professor Derek Knottenbelt from the University's Division of Equine Studies and Professor David Wong from the Ophthalmology Research Unit, have developed a unique approach to cataract removal operations combining techniques used on...

Cheaper and simpler keyhole surgery

Endoscopic surgery brings many advantages for patients but is very difficult for the surgeon. Working at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, Joris Jaspers has developed two instruments which make this approach easier and also cheaper than with existing surgical robotics. Jaspers is awarded his doctorate on Wednesday 22 March at Delft University of Technology. Endoscopic operations (o...

Robot assisted surgery more accurate than conventional surgery

A new study from Imperial College London shows that robot assisted knee surgery is significantly more accurate than conventional surgery. <...

Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teens surge 250 percent over 7 year period

Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teenagers skyrocketed 250 percent between 1994 and 2001, rising particularly sharply after 1999, when the federal government allowed direct-to-consumer advertising and looser promotion of off-label use of prescription drugs, according to a new Brandeis University study in the journal Psychiatric Services. This dramatic increase in adolescent visits to h...

Plastic surgeons countdown first full facial transplantation

Even after news of the first partial facial transplantation performed in France spread around the world, plastic surgeons have continued to research how to make the first full facial transplantation a reality. In the first peer-reviewed, scientific studies of their kind, U.S. plastic surgeons demonstrated how to successfully complete a full facial tissue transplantation from one human body...

U of MN uses robotic surgery techniques in cardiac cell therapy research

Researchers at the University of Minnesota were successful in using robotic surgery to deliver stem cell treatment to damaged heart tissue in pigs. <...

Cincinnati surgeons report new treatment for often-fatal injury

University of Cincinnati (UC) surgeons have developed a new, minimally invasive method for repairing a common and deadly form of aortic injury--an advance that could help reduce the number of deaths caused by auto accidents and major falls. The potentially life-saving technique is reported by Joseph Giglia, MD, interim director of UC's division of vascular surgery, and his team in the Marc...

3-D ultrasound scanner could guide robotic surgeries

Duke University engineers have shown that a three-dimensional ultrasound scanner they developed can successfully guide a surgical robot. The scanner could find application in various medical settings, according to the researchers. They said the scanner ultimately might enable surgeries to be performed without surgeons, a capability that could prove valuable in space stations or other remot...

New biologic treatment for tennis elbow may replace surgery for chronic sufferers

A person suffering from tennis elbow may not have to look any further than his or her own body for the most effective treatment, according to a study published in the November issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine. Specially-prepared platelets taken from the patient which are then re-injected into the tendon of the affected elbow provides more relief than more commonly-used ther...

Jefferson scientists find high glucose before surgery raises risk of dangerous complications

Patients who have high blood sugar before undergoing surgery run an increased risk of developing blood clots, deep vein thrombosis and even pulmonary embolism after surgery. Boris Mraovic, M.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology in the Artificial Pancreas Center at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and his colleagues examined records of nearly 6,...

Computer scientists unravel 'language of surgery'

Borrowing ideas from speech recognition research, Johns Hopkins computer scientists are building mathematical models to represent the safest and most effective ways to perform surgery, including tasks such as suturing, dissecting and joining tissue. The team's long-term goal is to develop an objective way of evaluating a surgeon's work and to help doctors improve their operating room skil...

Radiation after surgery doubles survival time for some lung cancer patients

Patients with lung cancer that has spread to mediastinal lymph nodes ?located between the chest, breastbone and spine ?who receive radiation after surgery and chemotherapy live twice as long as patients who do not receive radiation after surgery, according to a study presented at the plenary session November 6, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 48th Annual Mee...

Performing surgery on a beating heart may be safer

According to a review of the latest clinical trials, coronary artery bypass surgery performed on a beating heart, without the aid of a heart-lung machine, is a safe option that leads to fewer negative side effects for bypass patients. This review is featured in Journal of Cardiac Surgery. “Previously, it was more common for doctors to perform artery bypass surgery on the heart by stopping...

New fMRI technology making brain tumor surgery safer

Brain specialists at The Neuroscience Institute at University Hospital and the University of Cincinnati have taken a significant step forward in their quest to treat difficult tumors while preserving areas of the brain that are responsible for speech and movement. The Cincinnati specialists are among the first in the country to use new technology that integrates functional MRI (fMRI) data into h...

Magnetic system could be key to surgery without scars

Physicians at UT Southwestern Medical Center and engineers at UT Arlington have collaborated to invent a groundbreaking system that could be key to delivering on the promise of surgery without scars. The new technique, which is still in the developmental stage, allows for magnetically maneuvering laparoscopic surgical tools inserted into the abdominal cavity through the bellybutton or thro...

Computer imaging assists with facial reconstructive surgery

A new calibration technique that involves measuring the distance between the upper ear and chin in photographs could help facial plastic surgeons use computer imaging software to achieve aesthetic harmony in their patients, according to a report in the March/April issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. “The importance of balanced facial proportions...

Surgeons with video game skill appear to perform better in simulated surgery skills course

In a study involving 12 surgeons and 21 surgical residents, video game skill was correlated with laparoscopic surgery skill as assessed during a simulated surgery skills course, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. James C. Rosser Jr., M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and colleagues asked 33 surgeons (21 reside...

Elderly spinal cord injuries increase five-fold in 30 years, Jefferson neurosurgeons find

The number of spinal cord injuries among senior citizens (age 70 and above) has increased five times in the past 30 years, as compared with younger spinal cord injury patients, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jefferson's Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Delaware Valley recently reported. As the population within the United States ages, it is estimated that...

No-scalpel vasectomies by skilled surgeons may speed recovery

Although no-scalpel vasectomies are becoming more popular among physicians and patients, there are no definitive statistics to confirm the superiority of this choice, and a new review's main conclusion is to underline the importance of training. Yet training is not always available or sought, said lead reviewer Dr. Lynley Cook, a public health physician and clinical senior lecturer at the...

Genes may determine success of hip replacement surgery

The success of long term hip replacement surgery may lie in the genes, suggests research published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. Among those with symptoms, 91 had early signs of “aseptic loosening,?...

Surgeons develop simpler way to cure atrial fibrillation

Physicians have an effective new option for treating atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heart rhythm that can cause stroke. Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed and tested a device that radically shortens and simplifies a complex surgical procedure that has had the best long-term cure rate for persistent atrial fibrillation. The simpli...

Drug-resistant bacterial infections serious complication after corrective eye surgery

Drug-resistant bacteria can complicate treatment after many surgical procedures. In particular, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which has been found in many healthcare settings, can be a serious post-operative complication. In a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology, researchers found MRSA infections in the eyes of 12 patients after refrac...

OHSU surgeon implants donated tissue allografts

Over the years, orthopedic surgeon Dennis Crawford, M.D., Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University found it difficult to obtain tissue for transplant to treat some of his patients suffering with severe joint disorders. "I found this unfortunate and ironic," explained Crawford, assistant professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation in the OHSU School of Medicine, and a specialist in...

Dual-imaging technique useful before -- and during -- brain surgery

Neuroradiologist James Leach, MD, and his UC colleagues are among the first in the United Stat...