News by Subject Medicine & Health

A Cleveland Clinic-led research team has found that using an absorbable, antibiotic-eluting envelope when implanting cardiac devices like pacemakers and defibrillators can cut the rate of major infections by 40 percent.

Catheter ablation, a common cardiovascular procedure, appears no more effective than drug therapies in preventing strokes, deaths, and other complications in patients with atrial fibrillation. However, patients who get the procedure experience much greater symptom relief and long-term improvements in the quality of life, including fewer recurrences of the condition and fewer hospitalizations, than those who get only drugs.

The maternal mortality rate following a caesarean section (C-section) in Africa may be 50 times higher than that of high-income countries, according to an observational study of more than 3,500 mothers from 22 African countries, published in The Lancet Global Health journal.

A video-assisted thoracoscopic lung resection is a minimally invasive surgical procedure to remove part of a lung in patients with known or suspected lung cancer. This study used Veterans Affairs data for about 11,000 veterans who had lung resections from 2002 to 2015 to examine adoption of the procedure. There were 7,095 open lung resections and 3,909 video-assisted thorascopic resections.

Recent study formalizes the treatment strategy for this diagnosis, offering clear guidelines for plastic and oncologic surgeons.

Today researchers at Boston Children's Hospital announce encouraging Phase I results from a first-of-its-kind study - repairing ACL tears by helping the ligament regrow itself. The results will be presented at the Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA)/American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) 2019 Specialty Day on March 16.

Complete surgical removal of the thyroid improved health-related quality of life and fatigue in patients with Hashimoto disease, whereas medical therapy with levothyroxine did not. Thyroidectomy also normalized serum antithyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies. Findings from a randomized trial are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.