Despite some uncertainty about how it works, there is a growing consensus that Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) – also known as Vacuum Assisted Closure (VAC) – is revolutionising wound care. Speaking at the 1st International Surgical Wound Forum, held recently in Amsterdam, surgeons from Europe and the USA predicted the growing use of this innovative technology across the spectrum of…
In 2006, about 307,432 new cases of colorectal cancer arose in the European Union. The rates varied by a factor of two for women and three for men. The lowest rates were in Greece; the highest in Hungary and the Czech Republic. The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing in Europe, particularly in the south and east, where rates were originally lower than in Western Europe.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a wireless technology primarily known from the field of logistics, has become a focal point in hospitals and similar areas. RFID makes it possible to manage hospital beds from a central location or track the whereabouts of surgical instruments.
In intensive medicine, burnout has a major impact on the quality of care. For example, in intensive care units, where the staff suffers burnout, statistics indicate that patients remain longer in an artificial coma than in ICUs that are more or less free of burnout. ‘Obviously, that does not happen consciously,’ says Prof. Wolfgang Lalouschek, Medical Director of The Tree Health Care Centre…
The normal regulation of the core body temperature of a healthy, resting adult human (around 37°C) is affected during surgery, which can lead to an increased rate of wound infections, bleeding and cardiac complications. The manufacturer of MoeckWarming System reusable blankets reports that these provide comprehensive temperature management to ensure patients remain normothermic.
Quality in wound care no longer centres only on a successful healing process but is taking a more holistic, patient-orientated approach. Wounds cause pain, impair quality of life, and make treatment far more complex for medical teams. Approaches that facilitate a painless change of dressings and less wound trauma are therefore welcome – and advancing.
The teaching hospital in Olomouc aims to become a national centre for telemedicine. A telemedicine system is currently used by the hospital’s Internal Medicine Department 1 for cardiac patients and almost a hundred patients are remotely monitored via a telesystem implemented by the hospital.
The Health Informatics Congress held in the UK this April, revealed how IT is helping health Trusts across the UK to take innovative steps in the way they respond to patients’ needs. The Clinical Showcase session examined how Trusts are coping with new patient administration and reporting systems and, in particular, how Cerner Millennium and Lorenzo systems are being implemented.
To optimise workflow and save costs in hospital pharmacies automating medication selection is increasingly popular. Since the 1980s, the firm Apostore, based in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, a subsidiary of KHT (Kommissionier- und Handhabungstechnik GmbH), has constantly extended its technological lead in this field of manufacturing, and the company reports that its Carryfix Pusher leads the market in…
If patients suffering acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia are admitted to hospitals that frequently treat these illnesses they are less likely to die, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Since February 2008, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) has been trying to exclude short acting insulin analogues completely from reimbursement by the statutory medical insurers. Why? Insulin analogues are 30% more expensive than human insulin.
„Diseases of the nervous system and the brain occur more frequently than cancer. According to recent calculations of health care costs, they represent a burden of 386 billion euros a year on European economies,“ says Prof. Gérard Said, newly elected president of the European Neurological Society (ENS) at the annual meeting in Berlin, Germany. „This is often greatly underestimated.“
GE Healthcare has introduced to the European market the Giraffe® Shuttle transportable power source for its Giraffe and Panda families of incubators and warmers. By transforming these healing environments into transport devices, the Giraffe Shuttle eliminates the need for transferring premature and sick babies to and from transport incubators.
At 12 months the NEVO Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent has continued to demonstrate excellent safety and efficacy outcomes compared to Taxus Liberte according to new data presented today from the NEVO RES-I clinical trial. These results were presented as a late breaking trial at EuroPCR, the leading medical conference in Europe for physicians specializing in interventional cardiovascular…
This year's European Congress for Orthopaedics, Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, organised by the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) and which will in tandem with the Spanish Orthopaedic and Traumatology Society (SECOT) Congress, is expected to draw 7,500 international participants.
The fit of a prosthetic leg is a vital element in determining how well an amputee will function and adapt to the device. Historically, this has been a time-consuming art performed by skilled prosthetists. Today, computers have added science to the mix.
Advanced endoscopes have already transformed certain surgical procedures. Thanks to minimally invasive surgery (MIS), such as NOTES (Natural Orifice Translumental Endoscopic Surgery), even bowel resection can be relatively scar-less. Such procedures are entering gastroenterology, as presented at the 40th Congress of the German Society of Endoscopy this March.
The 3rd Central European Congress of Surgery (CECS), held alongside the 5th Croatian Congress of Surgery, drew over 300 participants to Dubrovnik at the end of April – 43 more than the previous gathering.
Surgical planning is complex. Today’s surgeons can utilise information from various sources – including CT and MRI images, as well as f-MRI, PET or electro-physiological signals. For minimally invasive surgery (MIS) these additional imaging data are of particular importance, in that they enable precise navigation within the body.
Neurosurgery has seen enormous progress, which should benefit as many patients as possible. However, according to Prof. Hanno Millesi MD, director of the Millesi Centre for Surgery of Peripheral Nerves, Wiener PrivatKlinik (WPK), a private hospital in Vienna, Austria, ‘methods are perceived incorrectly, because they are often confused with problematic predecessors, and sensible methods are…
A telemedicine project is being used in rural areas of eastern England to enable stroke patients to receive clot-busting drugs within a critical three-hour time window. Adapting video-conferencing facilities, a telestroke service has enabled patients to receive a diagnosis from a stroke specialist, who can authorise thrombolytic drugs to be administered to those deemed eligible.
With four hospitals, each with its own radiology department, and the central Institute of Radiology located at Höxter the Catholic Hospital Association (KHWE) Weser-Egge, Germany, needed communication improvements.
A 4.4.5 version of the Aquarius iNtuition advanced visualisation server-based software suite, including support for the newly-released iPad, was launched in April by TeraRecon.
Basically, a hybrid operating theatre (OT) is a combined operating room containing large imaging equipment, such as MRT and CT, which enables intra-operative diagnostics. If provided for in the hygiene and theatre concept, the hybrid OT can also be used purely as a diagnostics room, or as a classic operating room.
Last January Dr Maurizio Pupi became the International Business Manager of Vanguard Healthcare – the UK supplier of mobile healthcare facilities – which intends to spread its already very established and necessary services beyond the United Kingdom.
