Surgery

Rheumatoid arthritis risk higher in people with high birth weight

Heavy birthweight female babies are twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis in adulthood as their average birthweight peers, suggests research published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
– People who have a birth weight over 10 pounds are twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis when they are adults compared to individuals born with an average birth weight, according to a study published by researchers from Hospital for Special Surgery online in advance of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Weight loss bariatric surgery can cut cancer risk

Weight loss bariatric surgery for morbid obesity also prevents cancer, revealed by McGill/MUHC researchers. – The latest study by Dr. Nicolas Christou of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University shows that Weight loss bariatric surgery decreases the risk of developing cancer by up to 80 percent.

Brain maps to assist disease diagnosis, brain surgery

Researchers from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne are developing new technology to create individualised brain maps that will revolutionise diagnosis of disease and enhance the accuracy of brain surgery. – Researchers from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne are developing new technology to create individualised brain maps that will revolutionise diagnosis of disease like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease, and enhance the accuracy of brain surgery.

New therapy promising for melanoma skin cancer

The combination of two different biotherapies may be beneficial for patients with inoperable melanoma, according to a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) study presented at the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. – The combination of two different biotherapies (interferon alfa-2b and tremelimumab) may be beneficial for patients with inoperable melanoma, revealed by researchers in US.

Paint chemicals may harm sperms, male fertility

Men working as painters and decorators who are regularly exposed to chemicals found in paint may be more prone to fertility problems, sperm motility, infertility, etc. – A new study has revealed that chemicals used in paint emulsions may damage semen quality in males, making them infertile. The results of the study have been published in the ‘Occupational Environmental Medicine’ journal.

Breast cancer spread stopped by bone drug

Maintaining bone density could be a key to decreasing the spread of cancer in women with locally advanced breast cancer. Bones are common sites for the spread, or metastasis, of breast cancer. – Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that women treated for stage II/III breast cancer who also received a bone strengthening drug zoledronic acid were less likely to have breast tumor cells growing in their bones after three months.

Contaminated heparin not given to New Zealand patients

New Zealanders who were given the intravenous medication, heparin, can be reassured contaminated products found overseas have not been supplied to the New Zealand market. – New Zealanders who were given the intravenous medication, heparin, can be reassured contaminated products found overseas have not been supplied to the New Zealand market, reported by Medsafe, New Zealand.

Contaminant identified in tainted Baxter’s heparin

MIT reseachers have explained how contaminated batches of the blood-thinner heparin were able to slip past traditional safety screens. – An international team of researchers led by Massachusetts institute of technology (MIT) has explained how contaminated batches of the blood-thinner heparin were able to slip past traditional safety screens and kill dozens of patients recently in the United States and Germany.

Breast cancer drug Tykerb to be subsidised

Within weeks, women suffering from a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer will have access to a new drug on the PBS that will improve quality of life and prolong some lives. – Women suffering from a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer will have access to a new drug lapatinib (Tykerb) on the PBS that will improve quality of life and prolong some lives, reported by Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

MRSA infection risk after facelift surgery

Methicillin-resistant S aureus?positive surgical site infection is an increasingly problematic issue in all surgical fields. In the future, MRSA-positive infections will be more prevalent and will require well-developed screening, prevention, and treatment strategies. – About one-half percent of patients undergoing facelift surgery at one outpatient surgical center between 2001 and 2007 developed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, according to a report in the March/April issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

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