March 23rd, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Health Tips, Research
No Comments »
Physicians and surgeons all agree on the link between smoking and postoperative complications. We don’t agree (or know) how much time is required between cessation of smoking and surgery for optimal risk reduction.
Dr.Thomas Fiala wrote a nice blog post, Smoking Cessation and surgical complications, recently discussing the 3rd reference article below.
Smokers that quit smoking before surgery had 41% fewer complications. The researchers found that each week of cessation increases the effect by 19%.
Trials of at least 4 weeks’ smoking cessation had a significantly larger treatment effect than shorter trials (P = .04).
Smokers that quit had lower rates of total complications, fewer wound healing complications, and fewer pulmonary complications.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
February 14th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
No Comments »
While the news reports that Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania died after complications from gallbladder surgery, the question no one is asking is whether his death was a preventable one or simply an unfortunate outcome. According to the Washington Post, Murtha had elective laproscopic gallbladder surgery performed at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and fell ill shortly afterwards from an infection related to his surgery.
He was hospitalized to Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, to treat the post-operative infection. His care was being monitored in the intensive care unit (ICU), a sign which suggests that not only was the infection becoming widespread but also that vital organ systems were shutting down. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
January 4th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, True Stories
1 Comment »
It has been proven than there is tremendous variation in the practice of medicine across the United States. The Dartmouth data (Wennberg et al) has documented the differences in how medical resources are used and how different physicians practice medicine, depending upon where they live. The Dartmouth studies are mainly focused on cost and outcomes and make the case that improved quality is often inversely related to the cost of care. More (expensive) care is not necessarily better care.
Now that I am recovering from a total joint replacement, I am amazed to see the differences in how physicians, doing the same surgery, treat the patient. Total knee replacement (TKA) is one of the most common orthopedic procedures done today. Despite this, the patient cannot expect the same post op care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
