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Study looks at transpalatal advancement pharyngoplasty procedure for sleep apnea

Treatment with surgery or an oral appliance that adjusts the jaw is associated with improvements in obstructive sleep apnea, a condition caused by blocked upper airways in which patients periodically stop breathing during sleep, according to two reports in the May issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery.

18 May 2009

Mock CPR drills in kids show many residents fail in key skills

Research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center exposes alarming gaps in training hospital residents in "first response" emergency treatment of staged cardiorespiratory arrests in children, while at the same time offering a potent recipe for fixing the problem.

18 May 2009

Catheter ablation effective for atrial fibrillation

Treating a common heart rhythm disorder by burning heart tissue with a catheter works dramatically better than drug treatments, a major international study has found.

15 May 2009

Medicare will not cover virtual colonoscopies, CMS Says

CMS on Tuesday announced a final decision to end Medicare coverage for virtual colonoscopies, also known as CT colonographies, the Wall Street Journal reports (Yoest, Wall Street Journal, 5/13).

13 May 2009

Full kidney removal is not always the best treatment for small renal tumors

Nephron-sparing treatments, such as partial nephrectomy, thermal ablation and active surveillance, minimize these risks and are viable options for patients with early-stage (T1a) kidney tumors, according to a new clinical guideline issued by the American Urological Association (AUA).

30 Apr 2009

New doctors, teaching physicians disagree about essential medical procedures to learn

Physicians teaching at medical schools and doctors who have just completed their first year out of medical school disagree about which procedures are necessary to learn before graduating, according to a new survey done by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

27 Apr 2009

Uterus sparing surgery is a safe and effective for women with pelvic organ prolapse

Researchers presented data at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) showing that uterus sparing surgery is an effective and safe treatment for women who want to preserve the integrity of vaginal function after pelvic organ prolapse.

26 Apr 2009

Patients with stone disease could benefit from drinking diet soda

New research from the University of California, San Francisco suggests that the citrate and malate content in commonly consumed sodas may be sufficient to inhibit the development of calcium stones. The study was presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA).

26 Apr 2009

Preoperative MR may assist surgeons in nerve sparing during robotic prostatectomy

Preoperative MR can help surgeons limit nerve damage while performing a robotic assisted laparascopic prostatectomy (RALP) - saving some men from becoming impotent, according to a study performed at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA.

23 Apr 2009

DTI allows radiologists to see areas of the brain rarely seen using other imaging modalities

Radiologists are now able to look at parts of the brain using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) that are rarely visible with any other imaging method, according to a study performed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA.

23 Apr 2009

Surgeon removes a diseased kidney through the belly button

A surgeon at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago is one of the first in the Midwest to use a new surgical technique that requires only one small incision to remove a diseased kidney.

22 Apr 2009

Bowel cancer screening to be considered from age 25 for high risk group

Cancer Research funded scientists have discovered that a genetic marker can be used to identify relatives of bowel cancer patients who are much more likely to develop the disease than the general population.

20 Apr 2009

Study looks at effect of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization on liver function

Recently, it has been demonstrated that Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) improves survival compared with best supportive care in meta-analyses of randomized trials and in two individual clinical trials.

20 Apr 2009

New minimally invasive surgery option for stomach cancer patients

A new study led by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) compares traditional "open" surgery to remove the stomach with laparoscopic gastrectomy - a minimally invasive procedure in which the surgeon removes the stomach while guided by a magnified image projected by a thin, lighted tube with a video camera at its tip, called a laparoscope.

15 Apr 2009