Obese patients undergoing colon surgery are 60 percent more likely to develop dangerous and costly surgical-site infections than their normal-weight counterparts, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. These infections, according to findings published in the journal Archives of Surgery, cost an average of $17,000 more per patient, extend hospital stays and leave patients at a three-times greater risk of hospital readmission. "Obesity is a leading risk factor for surgical-site infections, and those infections truly tax the health care system," says Elizabeth C. Wick, M.D., ...

Obese patients appear to have a significantly increased risk of developing a surgical site infection after colectomy (procedure involving either partial or full removal of the colon), and the presence of infection increases the cost associated with the procedure, according to a report published online today that will appear in the September issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Surgical site infection (SSI) is considered to be one of the best available measures of quality in surgery, and health care centers are starting to be financially penalized ...

Among patients referred by non-dermatologists to dermatologists for evaluation of skin lesions suspected of being malignant, only apparently one-fifth were found to be cancerous, although dermatologists identified and biopsied other incidental lesions, approximately half of which were malignant, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "More than one million skin cancers are diagnosed annually in the United States , with one in five Americans developing skin cancer during their lifetime," the authors write as ...

Surgical house staff and attending physicians who are reminded about the charges for ordering daily blood drawing for routine blood work appear to reduce the amount of routine blood tests ordered and the charges for these laboratory tests, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "The use of laboratory tests has been rapidly increasing over the past few decades to the point where phlebotomy is a substantial proportion of hospital expenditure, and much of it is unwarranted," state the authors. As background, they ...

Among patients with a diagnosis of delusional skin infestation, neither biopsies nor patient-provided specimens provided objective evidence of skin infestation, according to a report posted online today that will be published in the September issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Delusional infestation is a condition in which patients steadfastly yet mistakenly believe that pathogens are infesting their skin. Sometimes, patients believe their skin is literally crawling with bugs, worms, or germs, which is also known as "delusions of parasitosis." ...

The beta-blocker propranolol appears to be associated with reducing the size and color of hemangiomas of the head and neck in a pediatric population, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. According to background information in the article, hemangiomas are tumors that appear by the age of 2 months, affecting up to 10 percent of full-term white infants. These lesions can be benign, or can affect functions such as the ability to see or on occasion can be life-threatening if they occur ...

For patients with eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD), steroids administered by a nasal spray may be ineffective, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The eustachian tubes connect the middle ear, the upper part of the throat and the ends of the nasal passages. Eustachian tube dysfunction may contribute to fluid collection in the middle ear (otitis media with effusion, or OME) or negative middle ear pressure (NMEP). Presently there is no gold-standard single treatment for this condition, ...

Toronto - Why isn't knowledge transfer happening more often in companies spending money on it? Maybe it's because their staff don't always want to share. "We've had years of research in organizations about the benefits of knowledge-sharing but an important issue is the fact that people don't necessarily want to share their knowledge," says David Zweig, a professor of organizational behaviour and human resources management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and the University of Toronto at Scarborough. His paper, co-authored with Catherine ...

Transferring a segment of muscle from the thigh appears to help restore the ability to smile in children with facial paralysis just as it does in adults, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The article is part of a theme issue focusing on facial plastic surgery in the pediatric population. Facial paralysis often disrupts the ability to smile. In pediatric patients, this can be especially problematic, according to background information in the article. Surgery to repair the affected area may generate ...

It's the year 1800. You're a slave in southeast Virginia. You manage to escape. Your freedom is only going to last as long as you can hide. Where do you go? Would you believe the Great Dismal Swamp? According to Dan Sayers, assistant professor of anthropology and an historical archaeologist at American University, that's exactly where you could have gone for immediate sanctuary. "There are interesting parallels. What was once more of a human refuge is now a natural refuge," said Sayers of the swamp, which officially became the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA (May 16, 2011)––Today's anticancer drugs often work wonders against malignancies, but sometimes tumors become resistant to the effects of such drugs, and treatment fails. Medical researchers would like to find ways of counteracting such resistance, but first they must understand why and how it happens. New findings by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers identify one protein, Abcc10 (also known as Mrp7), as being intimately involved in resistance to certain drugs used to treat breast, ovarian, lung, and other cancers. The results suggest that blunting the ...

Durham, N.C., and Singapore – Mast cells, which can help the body respond to bacteria and pathogens, also apparently sound the alarm around viruses delivered by a mosquito bite, according to researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. "It appears the mast cells are activated and call immune system cells to the skin where they clear infection, which limits the spread of infection in the host," said lead researcher Ashley St. John, a Research Fellow with Duke-NUS in the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the Duke Department of Pathology in Durham, ...

With an increasingly warmer climate, there is a trend for springs to arrive earlier and summers to be hotter. Since spring and summer are the prime growing seasons for plants—when flowers bloom and trees increase in girth and height—do these climate changes mean greater seasonal growth for plants? This is a critical question for forest management, especially in the boreal region—an area particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change. Dr. Jian-Guo Huang, currently a post-doc at the University of Alberta, and colleagues from the University of Quebec at Montreal ...

Scientists working with Professor Dr. Joachim L. Schultze have identified over 480 molecules whose concentration in the blood changes when a person develops lung cancer. These molecules are present in the blood cells either in increased or decreased quantities. "In lung cancer patients, typical patterns which can be detected with a measuring program thus emerge", explains Prof. Schultze. The molecules are nucleic acids which form in the body when certain genes are transcribed. The changes in the blood also occur if the tumor is still in a very early stage. In lung cancer, ...

Patients with heart disease risks are more likely to be prescribed cardiovascular (CV) drugs if they see a younger doctor and recommended to change their lifestyle if they see an older doctor, according to research in the June issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. Italian researchers studied the attitudes and prescribing trends of 1,078 family doctors, cardiologists and diabetologists, together with clinical data on 9,904 of their outpatients, after inviting the doctors to take part in an educational training programme on managing CV risk. "While ...

Aggressive male mating behavior might well be a successful reproductive strategy for the individual but it can drive the species to extinction, an international research team headed by evolutionary biologist Daniel Rankin from the University of Zurich has demonstrated in a mathematical model. Evolutionary biologists have long debated whether the behavior of the individual is able to influence processes on a population or species level. The possibility of selection at species level is still contro-versial. Using a mathematical model, an international team of researchers ...

These scientists have developed a mathematical model that recreates the behavior of an ecosystem in order to observe its dynamics and its reactions in different situations. And what they have discovered is that the ecosystem reaches a state in which it remains more or less unchanged, in spite of the fact that the species that make it up are continuously substituted by others, even to the point that a complete change takes place, similar to the change that occurs inside a human organism. "In short: the species change, but the structure does not", comments Professor José ...

Most solid materials are composed of millions of small crystals, packed together to form a fully dense solid. The orientations, shapes, sizes and relative arrangement of these crystals are important in determining many material properties. Traditionally, it has only been possible to see the crystal structure of a material by looking at a cut surface, giving just 2D information. In recent years, x-ray methods have been developed that can be used to look inside a material and obtain a 3D map of the crystal structure. However, these methods have a resolution limit of around ...

Sophia Antipolis, France, Sunday 15 May 2011: The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is calling for a single, co-ordinated European system to oversee the evaluation and approval of medical devices. The call is being made in a paper published online in the European Heart Journal reporting on a conference held by the ESC in January 2011 looking to increase the input of medical experts in developing medical device policy. "The ESC believes that the approval of devices used in medicine shares similarities in terms of ethical responsibilities as the approval of new ...

The research aircraft Polar 5 of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association returned to Bremerhaven from a six-week expedition in the high Arctic on May 6. Joint flights with aircraft of the European and American space agencies (ESA and NASA) were a novelty in sea ice research: Simultaneous measurements with a large number of sensors on three planes underneath the CryoSat-2 satellite led to unique data records. Furthermore, the international team composed of 25 scientists and engineers collected data on trace gases, aerosols ...

A new study offers hope for species such as the Siberian Tiger that might be considered 'too rare to save', so long as conservation efforts can target key threats. The findings have important implications for conserving some of the world's most charismatic endangered species, which often exist in populations far smaller than the many thousands of individuals that earlier studies had argued were necessary for viability. Charismatic examples include the mountain gorilla, which likely now number 1,000 or less, the approximately 450 remaining Amur or Siberian tigers, ...

Eileen Schuh's THE TRAZ is a novel that addresses head-on the issues behind juvenile delinquency and exposes the adults who exploit these troubled teens. "The girl was 12," the headline says, "when she killed her parents and younger brother in their Medicine Hat, Alta. home..." Perhaps even more troubling is this headline: "Imani Nakpangi was sentenced to five years in jail for forcing the girls, 14 and 15 years of age, into prostitution..." "A 14-year-old boy was charged," reads another, "when a would-be pot buyer ...

As plant scientists unravel the genomes of plant pathogens, comparisons can be made of the different and not-so-different invasion strategies for the organisms that threaten crops. John McDowell, associate professor of plant pathology at Virginia Tech, points out similarities in the strategies of several devastating rusts and mildew. Based on his own research and the published findings of other scientists, McDowell observes shared traits that different microbes have evolved to survive as absolutely dependent on their hostile hosts – and that can be targeted to turn on ...

Decades after the pit closures, coalfield communities still face significant health problems and economic difficulties, according to new research. A Durham University-led study shows that health problems including long term limiting illnesses such as chronic arthritis, asthma and back problems, are significantly more likely in some of these areas. However, the results, published in the Journal, Health and Place, also reveal that some less deprived coalfield areas are faring relatively well in terms of health. Some of these areas seem to have weathered the economic ...

The majority of seaports around the world are unprepared for the potentially damaging impacts of climate change in the coming century, according to a new Stanford University study. In a survey posed to port authorities around the world, the Stanford team found that most officials are unsure how best to protect their facilities from rising sea levels and more frequent Katrina-magnitude storms, which scientists say could be a consequence of global warming. Results from the survey are published in the journal Climatic Change. "Part of the problem is that science says that ...