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How To Care For A Stoma

There is a very nice review article in the “throw away” journal Advances in Skin & Wound Care (full reference below) which discusses the causes and management of peristomal skin complications.  The photo (credit) to the right shows normal, healthy skin around a stoma.

Peristomal complications are one of the most challenging aspects of living with ostomies.  The purpose of this review article was stated to be “to illustrate practical approaches to prevent and treat common peristomal skin conditions.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

Mosquito Repellents: Do Essential Oil Candles Work?

From the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association comes an interesting article by BC Muller and colleagues (J Am Mosquito Control Assoc 2008;24:154-160) entitled “Ability of Essential Oil Candles to Repel Biting Insects in High and Low Biting Pressure Environments.”

Anyone who has spent much time outdoors, whether on a camping trip or enjoying a backyard picnic, has encountered the scourge of biting insects, and in particular, mosquitoes. There is no good reason to be bitten by a mosquito, and many very important reasons to avoid them, namely, the risk of transmission of infectious disease, such as dengue, West Nile virus, malaria and so on. My first experiences with mosquito repellents were the ubiquitous green (“snake”) coils and candle products, which were supposed to keep the critters away. No surprise – some of them work well and some of them do not work so well. Read more »

This post, Mosquito Repellents: Do Essential Oil Candles Work?, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..

Finger Nail Bed Injuries After A Motorcycle Accident

I was supplied these photos by someone who found my blog and then corresponded with me regarding their injury. He had injured his fingers in a motorcycle accident six weeks previous to our “meeting.” He understood that I could not be his treating physician and keep his questions respectful of that. I am grateful to him for the use of his photos as they show how healing occurs.

Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

When Bad News Surprises Us

It’s that part of the job that I’ve never gotten used to.  I hope I never do.

I saw a man recently with an unexpected finding on his exam – a “lesion” that should not have been there.  I was seeing him for his diabetes and blood pressure, and was doing my “ritual” physical exam, when the “lesion” blared into my vision.

I say “ritual” exam because the exam itself had little to do with his medical problems.  It is just my practice to do a cursory  exam of the head, neck, chest, and lungs of most everyone who comes to the office.  I guess it’s the “laying on of hands” part of the practice of medicine that makes me do this; there is something about the human touch that makes a doctor’s visit different from a visit to the accountant. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*

Powerful Acne Drug Forced Off Market By Lawsuits

Effective-Acne-Treatment-Severe-Nodular-AcneThe physical scars will be nothing compared to the emotional scars that will haunt the children.   I recently read  that the effective acne treatment Accutane was pulled off the market this summer quietly ending access to an excellent and effective acne treatment for millions of self conscious teens and young adults.  Accutane, or isotretinoin as it’s known, was used to treat severe nodular acne.

It turns out that Accutane was linked to inflammatory bowel disease, and other side effects resulting in thousands of lawsuits.  It spent twenty five years on the market embroiled in controversy.

Approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 1982, Accutane has been the subject of controversy for years. It first garnered attention in the late eighties for causing severe birth defects. It has also been known to cause psychiatric problems, and has been linked to hundreds of cases of suicide in the United States. Accutane has also been associated with problems of the liver, kidneys, central nervous system, and pancreas, as well as the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and auto-immune systems.

Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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