Risk factor for deadly newborn infections identified
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In pregnancy, the time between when a woman’s water breaks—what doctor’s call rupture of the membranes—and delivery is directly associated with the risk of serious infections in newborns, independent of how long labor lasts, a new study shows.
Deadly infections (also called neonatal sepsis) affect as many as 1 percent of newborns and carry a death rate approaching 50 percent. An extended time between rupture of the membranes and delivery is a recognized risk factor for infection in mom and newborn, but whether the duration of labor influences the risk is unclear.
Less pain, bleeding with newer tonsil surgery
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People who have their tonsils removed using an “intracapsular” technique—which removes at least 90 percent of tonsil tissue, but spares the tonsil capsule—seem to experience less bleeding and pain after surgery compared with those who have their tonsils out using the traditional tonsil removal surgery, new research suggests.
The findings stem from a look back at the medical charts of 2,944 patients who underwent tonsillectomy with or without removal of the adenoids (tissue at the back of the throat) at one center from January 2002 through May 2005. The patients included 1,731 who had the newer intracapsular tonsillectomy procedure and 1,212 who had traditional tonsillectomy.
Tonsillectomies Are Increasingly Being Performed to Treat Airway Obstructions
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A new Mayo Clinic study indicates tonsillectomies are increasingly being performed to treat airway obstructions evidenced by snoring and sleep disorders as opposed to tonsil infections. The study, led by a Mayo Clinic Medical School student, will be presented Sept. 18 at the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery in Washington, D.C.
“This research shows that obstructive airway problems causing sleep-disordered breathing are now the primary reason children and young adults are having their tonsils and adenoids removed,” says Britt Erickson, the Mayo Clinic medical student leading the team of researchers on this study.
Physiotherapy helpful after breast cancer surgery
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Women may benefit from physiotherapy if they experience shoulder pain and reduced arm function after they undergo surgery for breast cancer, doctors from the Netherlands report.
Physiotherapy is effective for shoulder disorders unrelated to breast cancer, Dr. Carien H. G. Beurskens from Radbound University Nijmegen Medical Centre and colleagues note in their report in the online journal BMC-Cancer.
Lilly gets FDA nod on new osteoporosis drug use
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Eli Lilly & Co said Friday that it had won approval to market its blockbuster osteoporosis drug to post-menopausal women who are at high risk for invasive breast cancer.
The company also said U.S. health regulators had extended the use of the drug, known as Evista, to help reduce the risk of the aggressive form of breast cancer in post-menopausal women who have the bone-thinning disease.
Teenage weight may affect later fertility
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Teenagers who are either underweight or obese are likely to have fewer children in adulthood, a study has found.
It’s known that both obesity and abnormally low body weight are related to reproductive difficulties, and that obesity raises the risk of a number of pregnancy complications. However, it has not been clear whether underweight and obese teenagers go on to have fewer children than their normal-weight peers.
Low-salt diet seen acceptable to many
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Adults may be amenable to lowering their salt intake, particularly in the context of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, which is naturally low in salt, research shows.
“There is a public perception that reduced sodium diets are unpalatable,” Dr. Eva Obarzanek noted in an interview with Reuters Health. “But what we found is that there is really no difference in acceptability ratings from a higher and a lower sodium diet.”
Dermatologists Identify North Texas Leishmaniasis Outbreak
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A team of dermatologists and dermatopathologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center has identified nine North Texas cases of an infectious skin disease common in South America, Mexico and in the Middle East, where it is sometimes referred to as a “Baghdad boil.”
Numerous cases of the disease, called leishmaniasis, have been reported in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. But for the first time, cases of this dangerous infection are appearing in North Texas in patients who have not traveled to endemic areas.
Americans spend most on Lipitor, drug survey finds
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U.S. consumers spent more money on the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor—more than $9 billion—than any other prescription drug in 2004, according to federal estimates released on Wednesday.
Cholesterol drugs in general raked in the most money for their makers, according to the survey by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
China cigarette packs to get skull health warnings
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Chinese cigarette packs will have skulls, blackened teeth or diseased lungs printed on them in the latest effort to tackle smoking, but one expert said the images may actually attract younger people to take up the habit.
The images would have to take up at least 30 percent of the pack’s surface area under rules that would come into force from January 2009, the Beijing Morning Post said, citing an official at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
Smokeless tobacco use linked to throat cancer
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A study from India shows that use of smokeless tobacco in the form of chewing tobacco or snuff is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer in the “hypopharynx”—the area at the back of the throat immediately above the larynx, or voicebox.
The increasing popularity of smokeless tobacco is a cause for concern, Dr. Amir Sapkota and colleagues write in the October 15th issue of the International Journal of Cancer. Chewing tobacco is consumed in India in the form of pan, khaini, guthka, mawa or zarda—all of which contain tobacco and slaked lime as their main components. Snuffing of tobacco, alone or mixed with slaked lime (naswar) either through nose or mouth, is also popular, they explain.
Obesity may raise the risk of stillbirth
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Obese pregnant women may have an increased risk of losing their baby relatively late in pregnancy, and black women appear particularly at risk, a large study suggests.
Researchers found that obese women were 40 percent more likely than normal-weight and overweight women to have their pregnancy end in stillbirth—defined as fetal death in the 20th week of pregnancy or later.
Surgeons Remove Patient’s Gall Bladder Through Vagina
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Surgeons at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center have performed the first clinical trial surgery in the Southwest to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of performing abdominal procedures through the body’s natural openings, virtually eliminating scarring.
The UCSD Medical Center procedure involved removing the gallbladder through the patient’s vagina without traditional incisions through the skin. Only one small incision through the naval was required to help guide the surgeon. This procedure received approval for a limited number of patients by UC San Diego’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) which oversees clinical research.
Scientists Eye Secrets of Retinal Regeneration
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Peering at microscopic changes within the retina, scientists in the Department of Ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, have discovered a key mechanism driving eye health and eye disease.
Reporting in the cover article of a recent edition of Cell, the team says they have discovered just how light-sensing discs in the retina’s rod cells regenerate themselves.
Being Overweight May Independently Increase Risk for Heart Disease Events
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Being moderately overweight or obese appears to increase the risk for developing coronary heart disease events independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, according to a meta-analysis of previously published studies in the September 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight and therefore at higher risk for heart disease, other illnesses and death, according to background information in the article. “Because of the high prevalence of overweight and the expected future increases, it is essential to gain precise insight into the consequences of overweight for health and into the metabolic pathways that link the two,” the authors write.
