Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have a developed a totally new approach to treating liver failure – manipulating the immune response. If the results of the animal study can be applied in human patients, the approach may be able to keep patients alive until donor organs become available or to support liver function until the organ can regenerate itself, eliminating the need for a transplant.
Over a decade in the making, the WalkAide® System is a small device that makes a big difference for its users. Now the Canadian invention is receiving international recognition as a recipient of a 2007 da Vinci Award, to be presented by General Motors at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Dearborn, MI, on Friday, September 28, 2007.
Despite strong evidence that cardiac rehabilitation reduces disability and prolongs life, fewer than one in five people receive rehabilitation services after a heart attack or coronary bypass surgery, according to a Brandeis study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Childhood brainstem gliomas (BSGs) are rare but can be very difficult to treat successfully and they tend to have poor survival rates. However, a team of Spanish researchers have found that a chemotherapy regimen of irinotecan and cisplatin (I/C) produced rapid clinical responses and shrank the tumours by more than 20 percent in all six children enrolled in a clinical trial.
A new review of inpatient data from US hospitals shows that the number of infections caused by a common bacterium increased by over 7 percent each year from 1998 to 2003. The attendant economic burden to hospitals increased by nearly 12 percent annually.
A report from the American Cancer Society finds the breast cancer death rate in the United States continues to drop more than two percent per year, a trend that began in 1990 and is credited to progress in early detection and treatment.
At a time when tens of millions of patients worldwide endure disabling injuries or die each year from unsafe medical practices, the United Nations health agency and its partners called for increased research into patient safety, including the risks posed by care- and surgery-related infections, adverse drug effects and unsafe injections.
Kelowna General Hospital will expand to provide future capacity for more patient beds, the Interior’s first-ever revascularization cardiac centre and a planned fourth site for the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Premier Gordon Campbell announced.
Inflammation of a tendon triggered by calcium deposits, or calcific tendinitis, can effectively be treated with a simple and cost effective percutaneous method according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the Hospital de Basurto in Bilbao, Spain.
A previous study of mortality rates for congenital heart surgery used routinely available hospital data that were misleading, according to a report published today on bmj.com which questions the validity of such data being made public.