Mar 15, 2016

Spinal stenosis ranks among the most common reasons for spinal surgery and is expected to affect more than 60 million Americans by 2025. Although significant strides have been made in surgical techniq...

Mar 15, 2016

Parkinson disease (PD) is a chronic progressive condition that most commonly affects the elderly. Currently, about 1 million Americans have PD, but studies suggest that the prevalence of the disease w...

Mar 15, 2016

Opioids are potent narcotics that benefit patients with pain, but legitimate use of these agents has been linked to increased risks of long-term opioid use and possible misuse in adults. Weighing and ...

Mar 15, 2016

The Institute of Medicine estimates that chronic musculoskeletal pain affects about 100 million Americans and costs the country nearly $600 billion each year. Caring for these patients is complex and ...

Mar 15, 2016

Frail surgery patients are at greater risk of death and poor outcomes after their procedure than other patients. Recognition of frailty and its associated risks is important because it can inform shar...

Mar 15, 2016

According to current estimates, women now make up half of all graduates of medical schools in the United States. Despite this progress, studies suggest that sex disparities persist with regard to wome...

Mar 11, 2016

According to current estimates, about 10 million Americans have chronic stable angina, and many of these patients undergo elective PCI to improve symptoms of their disease in the near term. “While P...

Mar 11, 2016

Current estimates show that more than 25 million Americans have gallstones. Each year, about 1 million new cases of gallbladder disease are diagnosed in the United States. Approximately 1.8 million a ...

Mar 08, 2016

According to recent reports, about 2.1 million people in the United States suffer from substance use disorders relating to prescription opioids, and the number of unintentional overdose deaths from pr...

Mar 08, 2016

Published research has shown that hospital readmissions are commonly needed to treat complications after patients undergo major surgery. Few studies have explored if patients have better outcomes when...

Mar 04, 2016

Patient Age & TKA Outcomes The Particulars: Evidence suggests that increasing life expectancies and obesity rates in the United States have led to a broader age range of patients undergoing tot...

Mar 04, 2016

In the past several years, the goal for better diversification of the physician workforce in the United States has become increasingly important. Despite this need, few assessments overall have examin...

Mar 04, 2016

Treatment for congenital heart disease (CHD) has advanced considerably over the years, allowing for more children with CHD to live into adulthood. Despite these advances, CHD patients may require addi...

Mar 03, 2016

Historically, mnemonics have been used in medicine to facilitate learning and provide clinicians with tools to enhance their care of patients. These memory devices are often applied on hospital wards,...

Feb 18, 2016

As the United States population continues to live longer, the incidence of osteoporotic fragility fractures is expected to increase substantially in both men and women over the next 30 years. Osteopor...

Feb 16, 2016

A newborn in Tennessee had an operation to correct a "tongue tie." Except for the procedure being performed on the wrong baby, things went well. According to reports, a nurse came into the mother's...

Feb 02, 2016

Patients had no greater risk of death or serious morbidity when cared for by surgical residents working flexible duty hours when compared to those working standard Accreditation Council for Graduate M...

Jan 19, 2016

Studies have shown that patients who have recently received a coronary stent and later undergo non-cardiac surgery are at higher risk for adverse cardiac events. “This is partly due to a combination...

Jan 11, 2016

A recent event at the trauma center where I work raised some serious questions regarding the use of video recording for education and quality improvement. We have done this in the trauma bays for seve...

Jan 04, 2016

Last month, a three-judge panel granted English surgeon David Sellu the right to appeal his conviction. He has already served 15 months in prison. In this space 2 years ago, I blogged about Sellu, ...