Evidence-based guideline ‘Incontinent Urostomy’ published
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The European Association of Urology Nurses (EAUN) presented their ‘Incontinent Urostomy; Good Practice in Health Care’ document last March in Stockholm (Sweden) during the 10th International EAUN meeting, held in conjunction with the 24th Annual EAU Congress.
The aim of this document is to provide the best and most up-to-date information on this topic and thereby assist nurses working in the urological field.
This is the first time ever an evidence-based guidelines document on incontinent urostomy has been published. A multi-disciplinary group of nurses were involved in the development of the text: Hanny Cobussen-Boekhorst (NL), Sharon Fillingham (GB), Sharon Holroyd (GB), Berit Kiesbye (DK), Susanne Vahr (DK) and Veronika Geng (DE).
Binge drinking a problem for older adults too
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Binge drinking is usually seen as a problem of college campuses, but many older adults may be overindulging in alcohol as well, a study published Monday suggests.
Using data from a government survey of nearly 11,000 Americans age 50 and up, researchers found that 23 percent of men between the ages of 50 and 64 admitted to binge drinking in the past month, as did roughly 9 percent of women.
Among adults age 65 and older, more than 14 percent of men and 3 percent of women reported bingeing—defined as having five or more drinks on one occasion, on at least one day in the past month.
WHO chief urges swine flu vigilance
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The world must remain on its guard against H1N1 influenza, which has been mild so far but could become more serious as the northern hemisphere heads into winter, the head of the World Health Organization said on Sunday.
Margaret Chan, on a visit to Tanzania, noted that most people infected with swine flu had suffered only mild symptoms but it affected certain groups such as pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions much more severely.
“Looking ahead in the weeks and months ahead, especially for countries in the northern hemisphere, when they will be going into the winter, we need to maintain our vigilance and see how the disease will evolve,” Chan told reporters.
Obesity increases risk of prostate cancer recurrence for both blacks and whites
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A new look at a large database of prostate cancer patients shows that obesity plays no favorites when it comes to increasing the risk of recurrence after surgery: Being way overweight is equally bad for blacks and whites, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
Studies have shown that obesity is linked to generally worse outcomes in many cancers, including prostate cancer. Because blacks are more likely than whites to develop and die from prostate cancer – and because there is a higher prevalence of obesity among black men with prostate cancer, compared to whites – some studies have suggested that obesity might be a more ominous risk factor for blacks than whites.
“Not so,” says Stephen Freedland, M.D., an associate professor of urology and pathology in the Duke Prostate Center and the senior author of the study appearing in the journal Cancer. “Obesity leads to worse cancer in both groups.”
Getting a new knee may boost quality of life
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People with severe osteoarthritis of the knee who have knee replacement surgery are apt to see significant improvements in their “health-related” quality of life, new research shows.
Knee osteoarthritis—the wear-and-tear form of arthritis in which the cartilage cushioning the joints gradually breaks down and, in severe cases, can completely wear away—is a major cause of pain and disability, particularly in aging individuals.
“The demand for total knee replacement is increasing as patients gain considerable pain relief and increased mobility and health-related quality of life,” Dr. Montserrat Nunez, from the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues note in a report in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.
Study traces steady declines in U.S. cancer deaths
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Improvements in cancer screening and better treatments have resulted in steady declines in cancer death rates over the past three decades, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
They said younger adults—those aged 35 to 45 years old—have experienced the steepest declines in cancer death rates, but all age groups have shown some improvement.
“Essentially, the younger you are, the faster your rates are declining,” said Dr. Eric Kort of the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose study appears in the journal Cancer Research.
A Window into the Brain
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When we absorb new information, the human brain reshapes itself to store this newfound knowledge. But where exactly is the new knowledge kept, and how does that capacity to adapt reflect our risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of senile dementia later in our lives?
Dr. Yaniv Assaf of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Neurobiology is pioneering a new way to track the effect of memory on brain structure. “With a specific MRI methodology called ‘Diffusion Imaging MRI,’ we can investigate the microstructure of the tissue without actually cutting into it,” he explains. “We can measure how much capacity our brain has to change structurally, what our memory reserve is and where that happens.”
His study, presented at the Annual Meeting of the Human Brain Mapping Organization in San Francisco, has been pivotal to the way scientists view the effect of memory on the brain. Scientists used to believe that the brain took days or weeks to change its microstructure. Dr. Assaf’s new observations demonstrate that the microstructure can change in mere hours.
Fluent in Fun
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For therapists, knowing how to talk to their patients and understand them is critical. When a roadblock occurs between an adult patient and their doctor, it can be easy to work through, but for kids, it’s much more difficult. Many can’t express themselves in ways that adults understand; they might lash out, cry or withdraw entirely.
A core group of therapists say that this is because children speak their own language – the language of play. These mental health professionals are trained to observe how children play in a safe environment with the toys they choose, to reveal their deepest wishes, fears, and hopes.
“Play therapists use play as a way to help children who are experiencing difficulties return to a state of balance,” said Jean Camberg, RPT-S, an instructor of play therapy at Temple University Harrisburg. “It is this skill in understanding play as language that sets the trained play therapist apart.”
Childhood cancer treatment may raise diabetes risk
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Cancer survivors who got radiation treatments as children have nearly twice the risk of developing diabetes as adults, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They said children who were treated with total body radiation or abdominal radiation to fight off cancer appear to have higher diabetes risks later in life, regardless of whether they exercise regularly or maintain a normal weight.
The odds of surviving childhood cancer have improved with better therapies but several research teams have found that some treatments pose health risks later in life.
Breastfeeding protects against breast cancer
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A woman with a mother or sister with breast cancer should “strongly” consider breastfeeding her baby, doctors advise in a report released today.
In a long-term study of more than 60,000 women, researchers found that women with a close family history of breast cancer had significantly lower risk of developing breast cancer before menopause themselves if they breastfed their babies, compared to women who did not breastfeed.
“Breastfeeding is good for mothers and for babies,” study chief Dr. Alison M. Stuebe, of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Reuters Health by email.
50 million women in Asia at risk of HIV infection
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Fifty million women in Asia are at risk of being infected with HIV because of the risky sexual behavior of their husbands or boyfriends, leading health experts said in a report on Tuesday.
More than 90 percent of the 1.7 million women now living with HIV in Asia became infected while being in monogamous, long-term relationships with men who engaged in risky sex behavior, the report launched by UNAIDS said.
These include men who had other sexual partners or who were drug users.
Computer system improves pain therapy for cancer patients
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Successful test of electronic decision support on applying international therapy guidelines / Clinical pharmacologists from Heidelberg publish results in “Pain”
Pain therapy for cancer patients – whether inpatient or outpatient – is often inadequate. At Heidelberg University Hospital, the use of an innovative electronic system – combined with guidance by an experienced clinical pharmacist – has been successfully tested. The treatment of the patients showed little variance from international guidelines on pain therapy. In addition, patients reported having less pain. The results of the study have been published in the journal Pain.
The electronic pain relief guide AiDPainCare is an additional instrument of the electronic pharmaceutical guide AiDKlinik, which guides physicians safely through the current pharmaceutical market in Germany with over 64,000 products and successfully helps avoid false dosages, side effects, dangerous drug interaction, and duplications in prescriptions. The medication prescribed by the physician can be transferred from AiDKlinik directly to a prescription or medical report. The system is currently in use in 10 hospitals in Germany and can also be subscribed to by physicians in private practice (http://www.doctors-aid.de).
“Brat Pack” director John Hughes dies of heart attack
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Filmmaker John Hughes, who made some of the most memorable teen comedies of the 1980s and turned Macaulay Culkin into a major star, died suddenly of a heart attack in New York on Thursday. He was 59.
Hughes, who had largely turned his back on Hollywood in the past decade to become a farmer in the Midwestern state of Illinois, collapsed while strolling in Manhattan, where he was visiting family.
His films, such as “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” are considered standard-bearers of the teen genre, exploring American adolescent behavior with warmth and affection. He supplied his awkward characters with natural dialogue, allowing audiences to empathize with their travails.
Worried about baby bust? Study says births may rise
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- Wealthy countries worried about their shrinking birth rates may have had their prayers answered. If they get just a little richer, birth rates should head up again, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
They studied 24 countries over 30 years, looking at fertility rates and a measure of education, income and lifespan called the human development index.
“Although development continues to promote fertility decline at low and medium human development index levels, our analyses show that at advanced human development index levels, further development can reverse the declining trend in fertility,” Hans-Peter Kohler of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues wrote in the journal Nature.
WHO keeps 2 billion estimate of likely H1N1 cases
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The World Health Organisation stuck on Tuesday to its statement that about two billion people could catch H1N1 influenza by the time the flu pandemic ends.
But the estimate comes with a big health warning: no one knows how many people so far have caught the new strain, known as swine flu, and the final number will never be known as many cases are so mild they may go unnoticed.
“By the end of a pandemic, anywhere between 15-45 percent of a population will have been infected by the new pandemic virus,” WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said in a statement.
