Pressure ulcers are a risk for patients undergoing long surgical procedures. Gel pads, widely used to reduce this risk, are considered to have two major disadvantages: they compromise the patient's thermo regulation by "sucking" warmth from the body and they do not provide sufficient pressure reduction for prominent body parts.
During five years of practical experience, Johanna Meyer, Assistant Director of the Nursing Directorate at Gütersloh Municipal Hospital, Germany, has found that a pressure-relieving system made by MTS proved convenient for patients and nurses.
By Hans Peter Hartl, member of the Nursing Directorate at the Department of Gerontopsychiatry, Mainkofen District Hospital, Germany.
The safety of medical products, which includes bedding, depends on three pillars: identification of mistakes, updating standards and training.
Early suspicions of cancer, either from clinical evidence or medical imaging, are often followed up on biopsy. However, the removal of tissue for histological analysis can be uncomfortable for patients.
Currently, early detection of Prostate Cancer depends on an abnormal digital rectal examination and an elevated prostate-specific-antigen (PSA) level requiring a prostate biopsy, often associated with anxiety, discomfort, complications, and heavy expenses. The prostate-cancer-gene-3 (PCA3) test is a new PCa gene-based marker carried out with a urine sample.
German scientist Harald zur Hausen showed that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) cause cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier from France discovered HIV.
The next flu season will come. To prevent high-risk people from infections, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently published a final guidance on the use of the drugs oseltamivir, amantadine and zanamivir for the prophylaxis of influenza. "But vaccination is the main way to prevent flu", says Gillian Leng, NICE Deputy Chief Executive.
Injections, that's everyday business for the men and women working in healthcare. As long as it is the patients who have to face the needle, it seems. Like in the years before Dr Heinzpeter Moecke, medical director of Asklepios Klinik Nord-Heidberg in Hamburg, Germany, set an example for his staff and had a vaccination.
Until recently, physicians believed that stenosis was responsible for strokes. But new investigations show that the composition of complicated plaques are the major cause. Canadian researchers now used 3-D MRI to accuratly detect bleeding by those plaques within the vessel walls.
A hearing test screening, designed to detect hearing impairments in newborns, shell help prevent irreversible and permanent hearing problems in about 2000 babies in Germany per year. From 1 January 2009, this test might be covered by the statutory health insurances
Now it seems to be proven: The reason why people in Mediterranean countries live longer and healthier can be connected with their nutrition. Researchers in Italy found that sticking rigidly to a full Mediterranean diet can help reduce deaths from major chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
Mediterranean diet protects against chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Italian scientists bolstering one more time the idea that low intake of meat, dairy products and alcohol, but high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive oil, grains and fish servers as a model of healthy eating, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
Good news for diabetes patients in the UK: According to a report published recently by the Department of Health, diabetes care in the NHS is improving and focusing more on prevention. The result: More patients have been identified, and in more people at risk development of the condition could be prevented.
Researchers have discovered a potential new treatment for diabetes by isolating and killing defective cells which prevent the natural production of insulin. The investigation opens the door to a potential therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research recently agreed funding for a diabetes competence network — the first diabetes mellitus project to be funded by the ministry's new “Health Research — Research for People” programme.
Optimal treatment of diabetes is very difficult to achieve since many obstacles have to be overcome such as expensive treatments, poor patient compliance or insufficient datac. With these challenges in mind, a new research project titled "Computerassisted Diabetes Risk Management (CDRM)" was put in place to examine how eHealth solutions can improve diabetes care.
Experts starts to identify nutrition's components that might support the fight against diseases. Recently researchers from John Hopkins Medical School found that a decrease in lung concentrations of NFR2-dependent antioxidants, key components of the lung's defense system, is linked to the severity of chronic obstructive pulmany disease (COPD) in smokers.
Vulvar cancer is the fourth most common cancer of the female genital tract. In 2008, roughly 3,460 cases of vulvar cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and about 870 will die of this cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
Lifestyle and risk factor results show that recommended scientific guidelines form a contrast to what is achieved in daily practice in high risk individuals in primary prevention of CVD. Together with its partners the ESC demands a comprehensive and multisdicplinary primary prevention programme involving the high-risk population, their GP's and other health professionals, a health insurance…
Between June 2004 and April 2008 the Dutch DECREASE III Study observed patients treated with Fluvastatin. The results show that Fluvastatin XL therapy can be associated with improved postoperative cardiac outcome in high-risk patients undergoing elective vascular surgery.
Intima media thickness (IMT) is a valuable research tool that can be used as surrogate end points in clinical trails, says Professor Stefan Agewall.
bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics (IVD), offers the most comprehensive diagnostic solution on the market to help hospitals and healthcare facilities fight Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI).
Professor C Mueller adressed the issue of new biomarkers in acute cardiac care on the ESC on Monday, 1st September. Read his comment in the following.
Recent studies have shown that overweight and obesity during childhood and adolescence have a negative impact on the functioning of the internal walls of the arteries, paving the way to the development of an arteriosclerotic disease from an increasingly early age.
