Medical Science Potpourri

Palomar · 2005-05-21 08:27:50

*I've been wanting to start a thread like this for a while.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050520/ap_ … ]Physician goes from "brilliant" to banned

Have heard about this quack. Among many other things, he'd refuse to wash his hands between surgeries.

I also recently read of a physician in Washington State who has an identical twin brother. Apparently the twin (not a physician) would pose as the physician brother, see patients and etc.

::shakes head::

It must be really bad, if the AMA speaks out openly/publically against a physician; generally they protect each other fiercely. If the AMA condemns a doctor, he or she is through.

--Cindy

Grypd · 2005-05-23 17:38:31

Like the idea of this thread but we must sort of bring in the new technologies. Even if banned in the USA.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4563607.stm]UK Clones a human embryo

This is technology which could lead to cures for some of the most nastiest diseases that mankind has. Pioneered in Korea it was thought at first to be a chance discovery without possibility of repitition but Korea and now the UK has shown it to be a source of embryonic stem cells. Useful for everything from the cure for diabetes to fixing damaged nerves curing blindness or paraplegic illnesses.

Shaun Barrett · 2005-05-23 17:44:25

Cindy:-

Have heard about this quack. Among many other things, he'd refuse to wash his hands between surgeries.

My mother was a nurse in London before antibiotics became widely available. Yet she maintained they rarely had in-hospital infections - even following 'dirty' surgical cases.
The reason for this was the strict control of the environment on the wards by someone called 'the Matron', who ruled with a rigid discipline virtually indistinguishable from that of the military! And she exerted this control over everyone, including members of the public who simply came in to visit ailing relatives. Many matrons were so formidable that even the doctors tip-toed around them and recognized their authority over the wards.

The rules imposed by matrons were non-negotiable and imposed for a reason: in those days, they were dealing with an implacable microbial enemy against which they lacked the antibiotic weaponry which came after the war. If someone acquired an infection, there was a good chance they would lose a limb or die.
Therefore, the rules of hygiene were observed at all times and woe betide anyone who even looked like they might be tempted to take a short-cut around them. Hands were washed routinely and regularly - especially between patient attendances - and bedlinen was constantly being changed and cleaned. The wards themselves were disinfected regularly, too, and bedheads, legs and bases, together with any other ward furniture, were washed down with disinfectant between patients. And visitors were forbidden to sit on a bed, being restricted to sitting on a chair near the bed.

My mother was always horrified at the standards in modern hospitals as she grew older. Obviously, those standards had become more relaxed after we gained mastery of infections using antibiotics. But lately, we've been seeing the rise of in-hospital infections again because of bacterial resistance to our antibiotic arsenals.
Unless or until we get better antibacterial drugs, I think it's time to re-instate some of the old methods, draconian though they were.
You can't reason with Golden Staph. ???

Palomar · 2005-05-23 19:46:01

Cindy:-
Have heard about this quack. Among many other things, he'd refuse to wash his hands between surgeries.
My mother was a nurse in London before antibiotics became widely available. Yet she maintained they rarely had in-hospital infections - even following 'dirty' surgical cases.
The reason for this was the strict control of the environment on the wards by someone called 'the Matron', who ruled with a rigid discipline virtually indistinguishable from that of the military! And she exerted this control over everyone, including members of the public who simply came in to visit ailing relatives. Many matrons were so formidable that even the doctors tip-toed around them and recognized their authority over the wards.
The rules imposed by matrons were non-negotiable and imposed for a reason: in those days, they were dealing with an implacable microbial enemy against which they lacked the antibiotic weaponry which came after the war. If someone acquired an infection, there was a good chance they would lose a limb or die.
Therefore, the rules of hygiene were observed at all times and woe betide anyone who even looked like they might be tempted to take a short-cut around them. Hands were washed routinely and regularly - especially between patient attendances - and bedlinen was constantly being changed and cleaned. The wards themselves were disinfected regularly, too, and bedheads, legs and bases, together with any other ward furniture, were washed down with disinfectant between patients. And visitors were forbidden to sit on a bed, being restricted to sitting on a chair near the bed.
My mother was always horrified at the standards in modern hospitals as she grew older. Obviously, those standards had become more relaxed after we gained mastery of infections using antibiotics. But lately, we've been seeing the rise of in-hospital infections again because of bacterial resistance to our antibiotic arsenals.
Unless or until we get better antibacterial drugs, I think it's time to re-instate some of the old methods, draconian though they were.
You can't reason with Golden Staph. ???

*Hi Grypd. Thanks for posting. :up:

Shaun, thanks for sharing that. Yes, there are some standards within hospitals which need to be increased (or reinstated). For instance, preventing too many visitors in a room at once. I also think they should go back to visitor/hour restrictions according to age (for juveniles and very young children).

On a somewhat different note, I happened to catch a TV news item regarding treating injured soldiers (at military hospitals of course) for chronic pain syndrome. Doctors are speculating that an initial and genuine pain impulse, if repeated enough, can become actually imprinted in the brain. So, after the pain actually stops (the nerve isn't transmitting the impulse anymore), the brain still "receives" the impulse via the previous imprinting. :-\ This reminds me of some neurostuff I've read by Dr. John C. Lilly in his "psychonautical" experiments -- programming and metaprogramming in the human biocomputer. So they're developing techniques of blocking that imprint. Or, it seems sometimes a nerve will go on "automatic pilot" and continue relaying a pain signal even if the limb or whatever is truly not in danger or is already fully healed. In that event, they will inject medication via needle into that specific nerve to prevent it continuing sending a false signal.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-06-03 12:46:28

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-05zp.html]Medicine from the Big Blue

*How very interesting.

Treatments for infectious diseases, cancer, etc. might be made from simple oceanic inhabitants' soft bodies.

Points out that 3/4 of Earth is covered by oceans and they've "only dipped below the surface."

Some of these compounds have biochemical activities that could be useful in medicine - killing microbes, stopping growth of cancer cells, or affecting the flow of calcium in and out of cells.
Marine natural products are an eclectic mix of chemical types, drawing on all the pathways of metabolism, Molinski said. Some are related to fats and proteins; others include elements such as bromine, sometimes bonded into improbable structures.
"It's a rich, complex and edited chemical library," Molinski said. "They're really fascinating little jewels made by niche creatures."

I like that line: Fascinating little jewels made by niche creatures.

--Cindy

Grypd · 2005-06-03 15:11:42

This is one for those World dictators in waiting.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ … html]Trust me......

So if you want some one to honestly believe you we now have the technology. Heh, heh I could really have fun with this....

Palomar · 2005-06-13 11:22:25

http://www.livescience.com/history/ap_0 … .html]2000 year old seeds produce sapling: Possible medicinal benefits.

*Oldest seeds yet to have been brought back to life.

Israeli researchers have germinated a sapling date palm from seeds 2,000 years old, hoping its ancient DNA could reveal medicinal qualities to benefit future generations, one of the scientists leading the project said Sunday.
The palm plant, nicknamed Methusaleh after the biblical figure said to have lived for 969 years, is now about 12 inches tall. Sallon and her colleagues have sent one of its leaves for DNA analysis in the hope that it may reveal medicinal qualities that have disappeared from modern cultivated varieties.
The date palms now grown in Israel were imported from California and are of a strain originating in Iraq, she said. The Judean date prized in antiquity but extinct until Methusaleh's awakening, might have had very different properties to the modern variant.
Sallon said the project is more than a curiosity. She and her colleagues hope it may hold promise for the future, like the anti-malarial treatment artemisinin, developed out of traditional Chinese plant treatment, and a cancer medicine made from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree.
``Dates were highly medicinal. They had an enormous amount of use in ancient times for infections, for tumors, `` she said. ``We're researching medicinal plants for all we're worth, we think that ancient medicines of the past can be the medicines of the future.''

Very interesting.

--Cindy

Grypd · 2005-06-13 12:55:20

The possibilities for this invention are endless both in the Medical and Industrial world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/408 … Scientists create Nano brushes

Just being able to operate on Viruses to create or modify is astounding (and a little worrying). But to be able to paint the insides of arteries and to coat nerve fibres is a goal well worth the effort. Imagine being able to paint embryonic stem cells along a damaged nerve.

Palomar · 2005-06-14 07:35:15

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050614/ap_ … ]Hydraulic fluid instead of detergent??

*Surgical tools washed with hydraulic fluid instead of detergent. Good grief...some heads ought to roll for this.

Toward the end of last year, elevator workers Duke Health Raleigh Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital drained hydraulic fluid into empty soap containers and capped them without changing the labels.

That is inconceivable. EVERYTHING in hospitals are to be labelled appropriately OR discarded.

Medical staff complaining the tools felt slick. This went on for 2 months. C'mon. The different feel of the tools and multiple staffers complaining should have caused a hospital-wide "shakedown."

Over 4000 patients affected by this. People contacting lawyers, etc.

At least one medical expert questioned how the error could happen and how it was allowed to persist through 3,800 operations performed in November and December.
"It should be pretty easy to see when you start to wash something that detergent is different from hydraulic fluid," said Dr. Michael Grodin, director of medical ethics at the Boston University School of Medicine. He said the two fluids normally have different colors and textures.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-07-07 09:54:28

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology … r-tailored treatments?

*Interesting differences and still seeking answers. I can relate this to my husband's seizure-frequency peak (1-1/2 years) and the effects of that on me as well.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-07-12 10:35:42

How about [url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8544119/]Gold-colored bacteria more dangerous
Strains can protect themselves against immune system attacks[/url]

Gold-colored bacteria that cause more disease than colorless strains do so because they carry antioxidants to protect themselves against immune system attack, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
Gold-colored strains of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which get their color from antioxidant compounds called carotenoids, tend to cause more disease than colorless strains.
Carotenoids also give carrots their color and include the vitamin A precursor beta-carotene.
When they removed the carotenoids from the bacteria, they were easier to kill.
Drugs that interfere with the bacteria's ability to make carotenoids might help in fighting antibiotic-resistant staph infections, which are on the rise globally, Nizet said.

One more good reason to each all your Carrots...

Palomar · 2005-07-12 12:55:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050712/ap_ … lysis]Home dialysis :up:

*This is terrific. More frequent dialysis makes for healthier patients, of course. Can be done daily. A lady featured in the article can go camping with her portable unit. :up: Quality of life boon, etc.

Says these units are suitcase-sized, substantially smaller than regular HD units. This reminds me of portable oxygen. I remember as a kid, occasionally seeing old people having one of those heavy, cumbersome O2 tanks on a wheeled upright cart beside them; someone would have to push/pull it for them as they ambulated to sit in a visiting room at a nursing home or whatever. Now you see older folks strolling into restaurants with portable O2 in units the size of a briefcase.

There's a real potential Medicare benefit too: At-home HD users require less frequent hospitalizations, which may save up to $10,000 to $20,000 per year, per patient in costs.

Ms. Everts says even if she never gets the kidney transplant she's hoping for (is on a waiting list), she could live with this latest technology.

Great stuff.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-07-12 13:24:38

I see that the smaller unit still weighs at least 70 lbs while the large is around 300. I sure would not want to have to move either around or be on the recieving end of it falling over.

I sure with more time they will get smaller and more portable.

Palomar · 2005-07-22 08:20:53

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050722/ap_ … orge]Cause found for the madness of King George III?

*I created a thread regarding this bit of history a long time ago, but the Search feature at this new board is tricky and I can't find it. So will put this "update" article here, now that this thread has been established.

Looks like the King's physicians inadvertently gained our independence for us. ?

Poor man. I can't imagine how he suffered ... medicine back then was so primitive. Understandable, considering, but still...

Am extremely grateful for clean, sterile, ultra-tech hospitals and surgical suites; quality controls over prescription medications; and veritable rows of over-the-counter medicines. What power we have: To cure and treat ourselves of many minor maladies by simply walking into Walgreens and etc. That's a true blessing.

--Cindy

Cobra Commander · 2005-07-22 08:43:18

Modern medicine is far more primitive than we like to think. Often treating symptoms rather than causes, brute-force fix for everything. Pills for high blood pressure that give you gout, pills for that that give you splitting headaches, pills for that. . . At the end of the day you're sometimes sicker than you started and having visions on top of it.

Or chemotherapy, which I've even heard some doctors agree is the modern equivalent of bloodletting.

We've got a loooooong way to go before we crawl out of the medical dark ages. Making increasing progress, but still mired.

Palomar · 2005-07-23 15:36:26

Modern medicine is far more primitive than we like to think. Often treating symptoms rather than causes, brute-force fix for everything. Pills for high blood pressure that give you gout, pills for that that give you splitting headaches, pills for that. . . At the end of the day you're sometimes sicker than you started and having visions on top of it.
Or chemotherapy, which I've even heard some doctors agree is the modern equivalent of bloodletting.
We've got a loooooong way to go before we crawl out of the medical dark ages. Making increasing progress, but still mired.

*Hi Anakin. Er...I mean Cobra. Ha ha ha

What I had in mind (besides the luxury of all those rows and rows of over-the-counter medications in stores like Walgreens) is the advancement of, say, formerly "open" surgical procedures now converted to portals. Cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal), for instance: Used to require a long and painful incision, docs sticking their fingers in there, etc. Now most cholecystectomies are done via "laparoscopic cholecystectomy": A small incision is made near the navel. One instrument pops the gallbladder, thereby deflating it; another instrument sucks the deflated gallbladder up its vacuum-like tube. Gallstones can be crushed beforehand via lithotripsy (shock wave therapy). If the fragments are sufficiently crushed enough, they too get sucked away. Additional ultrathin instruments can cauterize bleeders, etc. It is much easier on the patient, speedier recovery time, etc. Urinary tract stones can also be crushed via lithotripsy; the fragments can then be naturally expelled from the body (if they're crushed finely enough). Lots of really cool non- invasive techniques they're developing.

And now we've got virtual colonoscopies. Not sure how well those work, though; haven't encountered enough dictations pertaining to those as compared to the old-fashioned (ugh) method of colonoscopy.

And yes, I do like all those over-the-counter medications. What power to stroll into a store and purchase remedies to help alleviate your allergies, cold, flu, hives, etc.

Just don't smack me with your lightsaber...I'm not sure Walgreens carries an OTC remedy for that.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-10 07:40:11

Modern medicine is far more primitive than we like to think. Often treating symptoms rather than causes, brute-force fix for everything. Pills for high blood pressure that give you gout, pills for that that give you splitting headaches, pills for that. . . At the end of the day you're sometimes sicker than you started and having visions on top of it.

*I do agree, to a point. There are aspects of our Western society which exacerbate these troubles, in fact create these troubles. We like to think we've licked our demons (denial), then turn to pills and alcohol to try and "deal with" deeper issues within our psyches (which can't be dealt with by mere numbing of the mind).

Western society has its advantages...and yet its resultant disadvantages can be disturbing. It has a real and aggressive tendency (continual) to try to distort and bend human nature/beings out of shape, or into a prescribed mold (conformity). These pressures produce all sorts of emotional upsets and etc.

So...I don't intend to imply that doctors and prescriptions are cure-alls; they certainly are not. Maybe too often just another part of the vicious cycle.

But in the event of surgery I do want that stainless steel, sterilized, state-of-the-art surgical suite.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-12 12:01:37

Hydraulic fluid instead of detergent??
*Surgical tools washed with hydraulic fluid instead of detergent. Good grief...some heads ought to roll for this.
Toward the end of last year, elevator workers Duke Health Raleigh Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital drained hydraulic fluid into empty soap containers and capped them without changing the labels.
That is inconceivable. EVERYTHING in hospitals are to be labelled appropriately OR discarded.
Medical staff complaining the tools felt slick. This went on for 2 months. C'mon. The different feel of the tools and multiple staffers complaining should have caused a hospital-wide "shakedown."
Over 4000 patients affected by this. People contacting lawyers, etc.
At least one medical expert questioned how the error could happen and how it was allowed to persist through 3,800 operations performed in November and December.
"It should be pretty easy to see when you start to wash something that detergent is different from hydraulic fluid," said Dr. Michael Grodin, director of medical ethics at the Boston University School of Medicine. He said the two fluids normally have different colors and textures.
--Cindy

An update

*This is an outrage.

Shirley McCaden, who had back surgery at the Durham hospital, said she has suffered rashes and pain and that her hair also fell out since the operation.
Her attorney has been unable to get information that she thought would be in her medical records, including what she told doctors about her postoperative problems McCaden said.

The dimwitted staff and now information gone "missing" in her medical records, which are also legal documents in the U.S. And if the information she supplied (complaints, symptoms, etc.) weren't documented to begin with...why weren't they?? Patient complaints/subjective symptoms are always to be *documented.*

Another outrage:

But state investigators — while citing the hospitals and the elevator company for mistakes that created the confusion, including poor communication and improper labeling of chemicals — did not consider the problem serious.

Despicable. Yeah, I'm sure those "state investigators" have been bought off by AMA or a physician/quality control oversight group (so-called). The surgeons and licensed staff who ignored the unusually weird slippery feel of those instruments for all that time should have their licenses suspended...or revoked.

The problem's not serious? Would those "state investigators" be willing to consent to surgery with tools washed in hydraulic fluid?

This should be taken to Congress, if it can be. The professionals involved in this debacle must answer to someone; should and must.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-08-18 10:31:11

Device helps stroke survivors

Pneumatics Get More Human

An unassuming name, RUPERT, is a new form of rehabilitation for stroke survivors. Robotic Upper Extremity Repetitive Therapy, or RUPERT, is powered by four pneumatic muscles that assist movement at the shoulder, elbow and wrist.

By following the kinematics of the human arm, researchers at Kinetic Muscles and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University hope RUPERT will help victims relearn how to use their own arm muscles.

SpaceNut · 2005-08-18 20:37:07

Microgravity tech could sway stem cell debate and as well the best place to do this research.

Microgravity technology developed by NASA can multiply stem cells from a newborn's blood in large enough quantities to be used to regenerate human tissue, London scientists have found.
Researchers at U.K.-based Kingston University have discovered primitive stem cells in the umbilical cord blood of infants that are similar to those from human embryos, which can be used to develop into any tissue in the body. The newly discovered human cells, called "cord-blood-derived embryonic-like stem cells" or CBEs, are more versatile than adult stem cells, found in bone marrow, which can mend damaged tissue during life.

Stormrage · 2005-08-22 05:07:04

I never trusts NHS Hospitals. You would think living in a country like this the hospital staff would be smart enough to wash up properly. Wtf did they learn at medical schoos? MRSA is rampant the patient waiting list is getting longer every day and worst of all. They train doctors in India to come here and when they do come they don't hire them. There are poor doctors in the streets of london walking around and not able to do what they were trained for. Thats why i rather pay for my medical treatmeant then take a crackpot free one.

Oh and why is everyone so happy about embronic stem cells. There was a man who suffered form stroke and was given stem cells. He died and they discoverd hair and bone in his brain.

Grypd · 2005-08-30 07:57:08

Well more from the up and coming science that of genetics and there modification

Gene that gives a 30% increase to length of life found

Still the gene may work on Mice and Men but it has potentially other problems when these are sorted

Grypd · 2005-08-30 08:09:10

And for something wonderful and potentially sinister if misused.

Times online, Artificial wombs within 20 years

(sinister ideas)
Well if we can get it to work here is our colonisation problem for Mars sorted send a couple of hundred artificial wombs and a million fertilised eggs and simply keep increasing the population. Not to mention we have a lot of problems with demographics in Europe but with this technology not any more.

SpaceNut · 2005-08-30 08:27:58

Great articles
One that fools with mother natures evolutionary process and the other that reminds me of the movie the matrix.

Each has there propose if used for the better of humanity.

Next question would be of the mars born, are they still earthlings?

Palomar · 2005-09-02 06:25:00

NASA using unique undersea lab

*...to prepare for future space missions and medicine.

NEEMO 9 will demonstrate and evaluate innovative technologies and procedures for remote surgery. Dr. Mehran Anvari will use two-way telecommunication to guide astronauts through diagnosis and surgery and use virtual reality control technology to guide tele-robotic surgery.

Similar in size to the Space Station's living quarters, Aquarius is the world's only permanent underwater habitat and research laboratory. The 45-foot long, 13-foot diameter complex is three miles off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

NASA astronaut Lee Morin leads the crew on an 18-day undersea mission Oct. 3 to 20 aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aquarius Underwater Laboratory.

--Cindy

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#1 2005-05-21 08:27:50

Re: Medical Science Potpourri

#2 2005-05-23 17:38:31

Re: Medical Science Potpourri

#3 2005-05-23 17:44:25

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#4 2005-05-23 19:46:01

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#5 2005-06-03 12:46:28

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#6 2005-06-03 15:11:42

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#7 2005-06-13 11:22:25

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#8 2005-06-13 12:55:20

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#9 2005-06-14 07:35:15

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#10 2005-07-07 09:54:28

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#11 2005-07-12 10:35:42

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#12 2005-07-12 12:55:00

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#13 2005-07-12 13:24:38

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#14 2005-07-22 08:20:53

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#15 2005-07-22 08:43:18

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#16 2005-07-23 15:36:26

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#17 2005-08-10 07:40:11

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#18 2005-08-12 12:01:37

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#19 2005-08-18 10:31:11

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#20 2005-08-18 20:37:07

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#21 2005-08-22 05:07:04

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#22 2005-08-30 07:57:08

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#23 2005-08-30 08:09:10

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#24 2005-08-30 08:27:58

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#25 2005-09-02 06:25:00

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