Food Aid Missing Critical Ingredients
As food aid is mobilized in response to the global food price crisis, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns that sending adult food to feed young children will not save them from the risk of malnutrition. Today MSF urged donors to ensure their aid includes special foods for young […]
ASA comments at FDA hearing on fospropofol
The ASA submitted formal comments and testified before the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs Advisory Committee (ALSDAC) requesting that the labeling for fospropofol disodium injection 35 mg/ml (fospropofol) include a similar warning to that which is included on the label for propofol. Because fospropofol is a pro-drug of propofol and […]
Surgeon Sews for Fun, Sutures for a Living
Surgeons are known for the knots they tie. For Ramona Bates, that is doubly true: Not only is she a plastic surgeon, but she also has a passion for quilting. Lately she's been sharing her personal and professional interests at her Web site, Suture for a Living. I had the chance to correspond with Dr. […]
Review Addresses Strategies for Patient Adherence to Medications
A review published in the April 16 Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews provides various methods of encouraging patients to adhere to their medications, but the reviewers suggest that there are significant limitations and that more research is needed.
Heparin Contamination Was Deliberate Act to Cut Costs?
Contamination of the worldwide heparin supply, which resulted in a substantial increase in adverse events and an estimated 81 deaths in the US, appears to have been a deliberate act to increase profits in Chinese workshops.
Blood Substitutes Linked to Deaths, MI; FDA Should Have Acted Sooner to Stop Trials, Researchers Say
People treated with blood substitutes in clinical trials over the past two decades were 30% more likely to die and had almost a threefold higher rate of myocardial infarction (MI) than patients in control groups, a new meta-analysis suggests [1]. Even more damning, the authors of the study say that the US Food and Drug […]
Acupuncture Can Relieve Hot Flushes Caused by Tamoxifen
Acupuncture reduced by half the hot flushes caused by tamoxifen in a small clinical trial involving 59 breast cancer patients after surgery. Relief was experienced both day and night, and the reduction in hot flushes was seen 3 months after the last acupuncture treatment. These results were presented today at the European Breast Cancer Conference […]
Oral Contrast for Abdominal CT: How Important Is It and How Long Does It Take?
QuestionHow important is oral contrast material to the accuracy of an abdominal computed tomography (CT), and how long does it really take to reach its intended target? Response from Joseph R. Lex Jr., MDAssociate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Transparency in Adverse Event Reporting Pleases Patients
Hospitalized patients who suffer an adverse event may learn little about it from medical personnel, especially if the event is preventable, according to findings presented here at Hospital Medicine 2008, the Society of Hospital Medicine annual meeting.
HIV Co-Infection Speeds HCV-Induced Liver Fibrosis
Although HIV does not directly infect the liver, HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection is associated with more severe HCV-induced liver fibrosis than is HCV infection alone.
