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Surgery for children with sleep apnea improves quality of life

Children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have improvements in their quality of life as well as their sleep disorder after surgical removal of the tonsils and adenoid tissue, according to an article in the April issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

19 Apr 2005

Long term outcomes for children who undergo ear tube placement surgery

Infants and young children who undergo surgery to insert ventilation tubes in their ears as a treatment for ear infections have hearing levels comparable to normal children 14 years later, although children with more serious disease may require repeat procedures or other ear surgery, according to two studies in the April issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

19 Apr 2005

Sex, age and sun exposure linked to frequency of sunburns

In Danish volunteers, sunburn was typically associated with female sex, younger age, high risk behaviors like sunbathing, and long hours exposed to the sun, according to an article in the April issue of Archives of Dermatology.

19 Apr 2005

Dermatologists use patterns to recognize melanoma

Dermatologists depend on overall pattern recognition and comparison rather than specific analytic criteria to distinguish melanoma lesions (malignant skin cancer) from harmless skin moles, according to an article in the April issue of Archives of Dermatology.

19 Apr 2005

Gastric bypass patients fare better as surgical procedures increase

Risk of serious complications and death following gastric bypass surgery for morbid obesity may be reduced substantially when the surgery is performed at high volume centers and the surgeons have reached the 100 case experience, according to an article in the April issue of Archives of Surgery.

19 Apr 2005

Obesity in China common - around 18 million adults

Around 18 million adults in China are obese, 137 million are overweight, and 64 million have metabolic syndrome—a condition where a number of risk factors for heart disease are present, suggests a study published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

19 Apr 2005

Rimonabant appears to reduce risk factors for heart disease in obese people

A new drug could substantially reduce the bodyweight, waist circumference, and risk factors for heart disease in obese people, according to results of a randomised trial published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

19 Apr 2005

Prisoners executed by lethal injection in the US may have experienced awareness and unnecessary suffering because they were not properly sedated

Lethal injection is the most common way people are legally put to death in the USA. It has eclipsed all other methods of execution because of public perception that the process is relatively humane and does not violate the US Constitution’s Eight Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

19 Apr 2005

Japanese researchers reverse diabetes

Japanese researchers have successfully reversed a woman’s diabetes by transplanting insulinmaking cells (islets) from a living donor’s pancreas into her, reporting their results in a research letter published online today by The Lancet. This is the first successful operation of its kind using the islets from a living donor.

19 Apr 2005

Electric toothbrushes best for fighting gum disease

Powered toothbrushes with circular bristle heads that rotate in alternating directions are better at removing plaque and reducing the risk of gum disease than ordinary manual toothbrushes, a review of recent studies concludes.

19 Apr 2005

Statins help cut risk for advanced prostate cancer

In a 10-year study of more than 30,000 health professionals, researchers at Johns Hopkins and Harvard found that the longer men take cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins, the far less likely they are to develop advanced prostate cancer.

19 Apr 2005

Exercise variety - not intensity - appears to reduce some Alzheimer's disease risk

The variety of leisure and physical activity one engages in -- and not its intensity in terms of calories expended - may reduce dementia risk in older people, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins.

19 Apr 2005

$Laser refractive surgery is a safe, effective way to correct myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism$

Laser refractive surgery is a safe, effective way to correct myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism

Hopkins researchers have found that patients experiencing vision problems following cataract removal and intraocular lens implantation (CE-IOL) may have better results from laser refractive surgery, which spares them potential complications of lens implant replacement and the inconvenience of glasses.

19 Apr 2005

Novel liquid adhesive made from a protein found in human tissue effective in sealing corneal wounds

A liquid adhesive made from a protein found in human tissue is effective in sealing corneal wounds and may even be better than stitches, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study.

19 Apr 2005

C-section crisis demands congressional review

April is Cesarean Awareness Month and the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) is renewing its call for Congressional hearings into the nation’s rising Cesarean section rate and the impact on women’s health and the overall health care system. Recent data indicates that as many 4 women in 10 gave birth by Cesarean in 2003, with an increasing percentage of first-time Cesareans being performed with no medical indication.

19 Apr 2005

Women respond as well as men to treatment with drug-eluting stents

Despite the fact that symptomatic coronary disease afflicts men and women equally, only 33 percent of the 1.2 million interventional procedures conducted in the U.S. each year are done on women.

19 Apr 2005

Family history of obesity increases risk of suffering a serious heart ailment

A Johns Hopkins study finds that people who have a family history of heart disease have more reason than most to keep their weight down. In these families, the Hopkins team found that siblings who were obese or overweight had a 60 percent increased risk of suffering a serious heart ailment, such as a heart attack, before the age of 60.

19 Apr 2005

Alternate view for pathology of Alzheimer's disease

A new paper from researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine challenges the classic theory that the nerve tangles seen in the brains of Alzheimer's disease (AD) victims are the cause of the disease, but rather proposes that they are a protective response to the disease. Their paper appears in the April issue of the journal Trends in Molecular Medicine.

19 Apr 2005

Cost-effectiveness of drugs may vary across borders

A study published in the journal Value in Health reviews variations in estimates of cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals from country to country. Data showed that the results seen in one country are not necessarily applicable in another and that decision makers need to interpret data from other countries very carefully.

19 Apr 2005

Australian researchers develop safer and more effective aspirin

Monash University researchers and staff of the Melbourne-based biotechnology company Cerylid Biosciences Ltd, have discovered and developed a new class of anti-clotting drugs that appears to be more effective than aspirin at preventing disease-causing blood clots and has fewer side effects.

19 Apr 2005