December 21st, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in News, Opinion
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This year’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day was the largest and most successful yet, says event organizer Christine Rein. One hundred fifty participants attended the event, which was held Saturday, November 12, 2011 at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.
The program provided information about the pancreas and its function, genetics, risk stratification and screening, cancer-therapy breakthroughs, surgical options, cysts, pre-cancerous tumors and more.
Lecture topics included: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
December 15th, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in News
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Yoshifumi Naka, MD, PhD
Total Artificial Heart Improves Patient Survival to Transplant While Reducing Some Risks of Transplant Surgery
Surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center performed the first Total Artificial Heart implant in the New York City area to replace a patient’s dying heart.
“For patients who will die without a heart transplant, the Total Artificial Heart helps them survive until they can get one. By replacing the heart, we are eliminating the symptoms and the source of heart failure,” said lead surgeon Dr. Yoshifumi Naka, director of Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Programs at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia and associate professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Similar to a heart transplant, the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
November 26th, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in Research
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Jeffrey A. Ascherman, MD, FACS
After the jubilation of beating cancer, many women who seek breast reconstruction have another journey to complete. Before they can receive a permanent breast implant, they must first undergo a process to create the space to house the new implant – a process which can be uncomfortable at times and may take many months.
“Traditionally, women undergoing breast reconstruction have had to endure a long process of inconvenient and sometimes uncomfortable saline injections every 2 to 3 weeks to create a pocket for the permanent implant following a mastectomy,” said Jeffrey Ascherman, MD, Site Chief, Division of Plastic Surgery, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. According to some women, this process can also involve a significant time burden, since they must visit their doctor’s office every few weeks for an average of four to six months.
Dr. Ascherman is now the first physician in the United States to be enrolling patients in a study of a new, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
October 28th, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in Research
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Lyall A. Gorenstein, MD, FRCS (C), FACS
A recent study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that CT screening reduced deaths from lung cancer by 20%. While it may seem intuitive that screening would help to detect lung cancers and reduce deaths, until now, that had not been definitively proven.
“This is a landmark study,” said Lyall A. Gorenstein, MD, Director of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, who lauded the study’s design and its clear implications for treating patients at risk for lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, but the merits of screening — whether or not it actually improves patient outcomes – has been a topic of debate for the last 30 years. Dr. Gorenstein believes that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
October 22nd, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in True Stories
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On September 21, 2008, 26-year old ML started feeling short of breath. It quickly got worse; she began to feel dizzy and started sweating profusely. Her family called an ambulance and she was rushed to NewYork Presbyterian’s The Allen Hospital, where her condition worsened. Her lungs were failing. Corey Ventetuolo, MD, her first pulmonologist, knew that ML needed to be transferred to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, but feared that she would die during the brief journey. Her family decided to take the risk.
ML did indeed flatline during the ambulance ride, but she did not die. Her survival despite severe lung failure is due Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
