Sponsored • Intervention
Flat Panel Surgical C-arm
Directly from the factories, PrimaX offers a complete range of interventional and radiological units available worldwide. 30 years experience in the field of medical imaging will convince you.
Surgery
News • Fibrocartilage
Structure to aid better replacements and injury treatments
Fibrocartilage tissue in the knee is comprised of a more varied molecular structure than researchers previously appreciated, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware.
News • Fluorescent agent
Injectable agent illuminates cancer during surgery
Doctors at the Duke University School of Medicine have tested a new injectable agent that causes cancer cells in a tumor to fluoresce, potentially increasing a surgeon’s ability to locate and remove all of a cancerous tumor on the first attempt. The imaging technology was developed through collaboration with scientists at Duke, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Lumicell Inc.
Quickly identifying tumors by using antibodies
Antibodies combat viruses and bacteria. They also attach themselves to cancer cells – in a typical, characteristic way. Fraunhofer scientists are using this property to detect cancer cells in tissue samples. Such rapid tests can already be applied by surgeons during operations – within a few minutes and without expensive equipment.
News • New procedure
Scoliosis: fewer surgeries for kids
Scoliosis – typically defined as the curvature of the spine— affects around 3 out of every 100 people. While most cases of scoliosis are mild, some children develop spine deformities that continue to get more severe as they grow. An especially severe spinal curve can reduce the amount of space within the chest, making it difficult for the lungs to function properly.
News • Transplantation
They reconstructed his face without leaving a scar
Scar-free facial reconstruction is now a reality. A team led by Daniel Borsuk, a doctor at Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont and a professor at the University of Montreal, recently conducted the very first such procedure in the history of plastic surgery in Canada.
Article • Full HD
Next generation of wireless technology: ZeroWire Mobile
At Medica 2015 NDS officially unveiled ZeroWire Mobile. This patent-pending integrated cordless display solution combines 4K image clarity with wireless mobility in a self-powered system.
Article • Procurement
Good money for good products?
Whether they are wireless pacemakers or catheter-guided heart valve implants, new, really innovative products must reach patients – somehow. Thus manufacturers need to ensure that the hospitals that buy their products will be reimbursed. New diagnostic and treatment methods are not captured by a system based on the analysis of older methods. Holger Zorn spoke with Nicole Eisenmenger, Director…
News • Monitors
Barco streams and displays in 4K
Healthcare imaging specialist Barco announces the availability of its 4K end-to-end solution for the operating room, comprising a 4K 31” and 58” surgical display and its OR-over-IP management platform for streaming of 4K video and data.
Article • Documentation & QC
Breakthrough law to insist on video cameras
Should video cameras record surgical procedures? Athletes and sports teams review videotapes of their performance to learn how to make improvements. Could surgeons and operating theatre teams use videotapes for quality improvement and to increase patient safety and clinical outcomes by identifying and reducing errors or bad practice? Or would this be an intrusion, a distraction for a surgical…
Article • Revolution
3-D printed muscles
With 3-D printing revolutionising manufacturing, its healthcare potential is being explored for medical devices, prosthetics, dentistry and drug development. One area under the spotlight is the creation of artificial muscles using a 3-D printing system. Dr Fergal Coulter, who has played an important role in helping develop the technique, outlined the manufacturing process, which he invented for…
News • Child heart transplants
3D image may provide better size match
A new 3D computer modeling system may significantly improve a surgeon's ability to select the best sized donor heart for children receiving heart transplants, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2015.
Article • Surgery
World’s first bilateral hand transplant on a child performed
Surgeons at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) joined with colleagues from Penn Medicine recently to complete the world’s first bilateral hand transplant on a child. Earlier this month, the surgical team successfully transplanted donor hands and forearms onto eight-year-old Zion Harvey who, several years earlier, had undergone amputation of his hands and feet and a kidney…
News • Arthritis
Modular partial wrist implant may help with pain
Studies are underway to determine if a new modular partial wrist replacement will allow for better movement and last longer than traditional implants for people seeking relief from painful wrist arthritis. Although current options such as total wrist replacement and wrist fusion can alleviate pain, patients are often limited in performing certain activities after surgery.
News • Brain tumor surgery
Laser-based imaging tool could increase accuracy
Brain tumor tissue can be hard to distinguish from normal brain during surgery. Neurosurgeons use their best judgment in the operating room but often must guess exactly where the edges of the tumor are while removing it.
Article • Development
Dynamic braces for kids with scoliosis
Some six million people in the U.S. suffer from scoliosis, a sideways curvature of the spine. These include approximately 2 to 3% of adolescents who are diagnosed each year with idiopathic scoliosis, which is usually identified during puberty and progresses until skeletal maturity. One in 500 children today require treatment using spine braces and 1 in 5,000 need spinal surgery. The typical spine…
Article • 3D printing
Techniques help surgeons carve new ears
When surgical residents need to practice a complicated procedure to fashion a new ear for children without one, they typically get a bar of soap, carrot or an apple. To treat children with a missing or under-developed ear, experienced surgeons harvest pieces of rib cartilage from the child and carve them into the framework of a new ear. They take only as much of that precious cartilage as they…
News • Surgery
Conjoined twins successfully separated
Twin girls born joined at the pelvic and hip region are recovering after separation surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The girls are named Acen and Apio, but on Thursday they were carefully labeled “blue” and “red” to help surgeons know which monitoring equipment belonged to each sister as they carefully separated their spines, muscle and tissue.
Scan may identify best candidates for fetal spina bifida surgery
Fetuses with enlarged ventricles--the fluid-filled cavities inside the brain--may be less likely than their counterparts to benefit from surgery in the womb to treat spina bifida, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.
News • Improved blood flow
Saving Lives using new stent graft design
Vascular surgeon Pat Kelly of Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, knew his patients were doing better with the stent graft he designed, but he wanted a better understanding of the mechanics before testing the device more widely in a clinical trial. For that, he reached out to South Dakota State University. Associate professor Stephen Gent in mechanical engineering had done computational…
Article • Thrombectomy
Stroke is a surgical disease!
They did it for heart attacks. Can cardiologists now lead an effort to speed up the emergency medical response for stroke? Over the past five years, the Stent for Life initiative organised by interventional cardiologists has pushed majors medical centres to assure 24/7 coverage and reduce the time to treatment for patients showing up with severe chest pain.
Article • Clinical practice guidelines
Temperature management during heart surgery
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, and the American Society of ExtraCorporeal Technology have released a set of clinical practice guidelines to address management of a patient's temperature during open heart surgery. The guidelines appear in the August issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and were published simultaneously in two other journals.
Article • Gentle intervention
Endoscopy jumps the boundaries
‘Health insurers should keep a tighter rein on the quality of endoscopic interventions because, mostly, they represent a gentler alternative to surgery,’ asserts international expert Horst Neuhaus, during an EH interview. Report: Daniela Zimmermann/Juliane Dannert
Article • Thoracic surgery
Stringent medical risk management
The precise number of adverse clinical events is difficult to ascertain. Several international studies estimate that medical errors happen in 3-5% of all hospital treatments and that around 30-50% of these could have been avoided. A hospital-acquired infection (HAI) is also considered a medical error. Report: Anja Behringer
Anti-nausea medications could increase patients' arrhythmia risk
Certain commonly prescribed anti-nausea medications given to patients during or after an operation could increase their risk of developing an irregular heartbeat, new research has found.