March 23rd, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Complications, Outcomes, Plastic Surgery, Prevention, Quitting Smoking, smoking, smoking cessation, Surgery
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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*
March 21st, 2011 by admin in Health Tips, True Stories
Tags: Baby, Flat Head, Flat Skull, infant, Neurosurgery, Pediatric Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, Physical Therapy, Plagiocephaly, Positioning, Sleeping On Back, Torticollis, Tummy Time, What To Do About A Flat Head
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Figure 1
This post was contributed by guest blogger, Edward Ahn, M.D.
The head coach of a Division 1 champion women’s sports team brought her baby daughter in to me for evaluation of her flat head at the recommendation of her pediatrician.
While I was examining her baby, I started to say, “Well, I’ll tell you what she has —
She quickly interrupted, “Is it bad?”
I looked up to see fear written on this tough coach’s face. I was struck by how this benign condition can cause apprehension in so many parents.
Often, pediatric neurosurgeons like me or plastic surgeons are asked to assess babies with a flat head, also known as positional plagiocephaly. Usually, parents have developed a fair amount of anxiety, often with the underlying fear that their baby will need surgery or the brain will grow abnormally. These fears are not warranted. Read more »
March 21st, 2011 by DavedeBronkart in Health Policy, Health Tips
Tags: ePatient, Jack Wennberg, Practice Variation, Shared Decision-Making, Tracking Medicine, Wennberg
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It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
Sherlock Holmes, in Scandal in Bohemia
I’ve been reading Jack Wennberg’s new book Tracking Medicine, which is about his lifetime of work in understanding the reality of how medicine is practiced, as a route to helping us achieve the best care possible for each of us. My first post about this was three months ago, en route to a seminar on SDM (shared decision making); my first post after the seminar was shortly after. The whole subject has bent my thinking about healthcare so severely that it’s taken me this long to decide what to say next.
Key findings:
- Your doctors, with the best of intentions and the best of training, may unwittingly be prescribing treatments that aren’t necessary for you, or not prescribing things that are. (“You” includes anyone you’re caring for.)
- This realization was developed not through people’s opinions but by looking at cold hard numbers. After controlling for all variables, the odds of a given patient getting a given treatment vary by hundreds of percent from region to region. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
March 20th, 2011 by Jessie Gruman, Ph.D. in Health Tips, True Stories
Tags: American Society of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, Cancer Survivorship, CDC, CFAH, Medical Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Survivorship Planning
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I am a poster child for why everyone who has had cancer needs to work with their doctor(s) to develop and implement a survivorship plan.
Two of my four cancer-related diagnoses were found during routine screenings. Two of my cancer-related diagnoses and one serious heart condition were almost certainly due to late effects of cancer treatment when I was young.
Each was a complete surprise to me, and while there is evidence that predicts most of these occurrences, not one of my doctors used this literature to shape a plan for my post-treatment care.
I was on my own. My fear of yet another recurrence led me over time to cobble together a motley collection of oncologists (one for each body part) and other specialists (cardiologist, dermatologist, endocrinologist, and so forth) to watch over me. I thought I was lucky that this has worked so far. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at CFAH PPF Blog*
March 18th, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Health Tips, Humor
Tags: Diet, Dogs, Exercise, Personal Trainer, Physical Fitness, Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation, Walking, Weight Loss
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Earlier this week there was an article in the NY Times by Tara Parker-Pope —Forget the Treadmill. Get a Dog. — which states in a more elegant way what I have been saying for years now.
……Several studies now show that dogs can be powerful motivators to get people moving. …..
Just last week, researchers from Michigan State University reported that among dog owners who took their pets for regular walks, 60 percent met federal criteria for regular moderate or vigorous exercise. …….
A study of 41,500 California residents also looked at walking among dog and cat owners as well as those who didn’t have pets. Dog owners were about 60 percent more likely to walk for leisure than people who owned a cat or no pet at all. ……..
I have called my dog Rusty my personal trainer. He never lets me off the hook. We walk daily regardless of the weather (hot, cold, rain, snow). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
