The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Interest Articles
Caffeine may lower Alzheimer’s risk … in mice. More studies are however necessary to evaluate whether these findings translate to humans. The news report also poses the question of how many cups one would need to drink in a day (CBS News)
The first ever 16-patient “domino donor” kidney transplant takes place between June 15 and July 6, 2009. The kidney paired donation (KPD) system involves multiple incompatible donors and recipients, and matching them in a way to accommodate all participants. This system maximizes the chances of being able to donate and receive a kidney transplant (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
Obesity is linked to the behavior of same-sex their parents and not due to genetics. That is, obese mothers were more likely to have obese daughters. Sons take after their fathers. This study was performed on 226 families by researchers at the Peninsula Medical School. (BBC)
Heavy drinking is associated with an increased of developing prostate cancer, according to scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (Reuters)
Technical Articles
Withdrawal of proton-pump inhibitors (PPI) after at least 8 weeks on therapy can result in rebound acid hypersecretion (RAHS) (Gastroenterology)
[FAMOUS trial] Famotidine is effective in preventing gastric and duodenal ulcers, and erosive esophagitis in patients on chronic low-dose aspirin (Lancet)
NIH publishes their final guidelines on human stem cell research (NIH)
Catherine Mohr, research surgeon and instructor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, presents a TED talk on the history of surgery and the exciting visions for the future.
The journey begins 10,000 years earlier with the illustration of a trephanated skull and rapidly traverses eons to talk about the seemingly barbaric operations preceding the development of anesthesia. The demonstration of ether as an anesthetic at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1847 heralded a new era in pain-free surgery, but the triumphs were marred with poor mortality rates. Dr. Mohr then highlights the revolution in surgical outcomes after the introduction of the sterile technique. She briefly discusses laparoscopic surgery and fast forwards to the invention of robotic surgery … and beyond.
To avoid spoiling the whole talk, I will let you view the video and hear for yourself some exciting new developments in the field of surgery.
The “New and Interesting” series features short compilations of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format.
Need for resuscitation at birth associated with lower IQ scores at 8 years of age (Lancet)
Bariatric surgery outcomes are similar at “centers of excellence” and regular hospitals (Archives of Surgery)
Cognitive performance of early birds and night owls (Science) – The study conducted at the University of Liège showed that early birds and night owls had similar reaction times 1.5 hours after waking. The night owls, however, outperformed the early birds after 10.5 hours without sleep.
Long-term survival better with double- rather than single-lung transplants (Johns Hopkins)
Interim guidance for clinicians on identifying and caring for patients with swine flu (H1N1) (CDC)
FDA warns consumers to stop using Hydroxycut products (FDA)
The 85-center SYNTAX (Synergy between PCI with Taxus and Cardiac Surgery) trial compared percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG) for treating patients with previously untreated three-vessel or left main artery disease. The primary endpoints for the study included the following: death from any cause, stroke, myocardial infarction, and repeat revascularization. These variables were measured up to 12 months after treatment. Between the two interventions, the study found no difference in rates of death
or myocardial infarction. The incidence of stroke was higher in the
CABG group (2.7% vs. 0.3% with PCI; p=0.01). The rates for combined major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events were however higher in the PCI group (17.8% vs. 12.4% with CABG; p=0.002). This difference was largely attributed to a significant difference in the rate of repeat revascularization (13.5% vs. 5.9% with CABG; p<0.001).
The authors conclude that “CABG, as compared with PCI, is associated with a lower rate of major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events at 1 year among patients with three-vessel or left main coronary artery disease (or both) and should therefore remain the standard of care for such patients.”
Source
Serruys PW, Morice MC, Kappetein AP, Colombo A, Holmes DR, Mack MJ, Ståhle E, Feldman TE, van den Brand M, Bass EJ, Van Dyck N, Leadley K, Dawkins KD, Mohr FW; the SYNTAX Investigators. Percutaneous coronary intervention versus coronary-artery bypass grafting for severe coronary artery disease. N Engl J Med 2009
Fox News broadcasted today a brief report on a surgical chief resident using Twitter during an operation. The “delicate operation removing a cancerous tumor from a kidney” occurred at a hospital in Detroit (Michigan). No additional details were provided. This leaves us with a few interesting questions:
Were these personal or professional tweets?
What type of information was transmitted?
What had the surgical team hoped to achieve?
Was the patient aware that this activity had occurred?
What about the attending physician supervising/performing the operation?
The reporter had discussed this incident with a Fox News medical contributor, Dr. Jennifer Ashen, who is also a surgeon. She first clarified that it was probably not the chief resident–but an intern or other resident–who would be tweeting. The chief resident would probably have been assisting with the operation. She then stated that there were advantages and disadvantages of using Twitter in this case. When asked by the reporter to state an advantage, Dr. Ashen was unfortunately unclear or unable to provide a convincing response.
I believe there may be interesting and potentially useful applications for real-time microblogging in future surgical cases, but so far there have been no compelling uses in this arena. But just as Dr. Ashen had mentioned, we would first have to hash out the privacy and medico-legal issues.
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
