An American doctor accused of botching a string of operations while he was the chief surgeon at an Australian hospital was found guilty Tuesday of killing three of his patients and grievously harming another. Jayant Patel, 60, was ordered into police custody until he is sentenced on Thursday after a jury returned guilty verdicts on all charges against him. Patel, 60, had pleaded innocent to three counts of manslaughter and one count of causing grievous bodily harm to four patients he treated while working as director of surgery between 2003 and 2005 at a state-run hospital in Queensland state.
Paolo Zamboni, MD, a vascular surgeon from Italy with a most unorthodox theory about multiple sclerosis. Zamboni believes that the disease, which damages the nervous system, may be caused by narrowed veins in the neck and chest that block the drainage of blood from the brain. He has reported in medical journals that opening those veins with the kind of balloons used to treat blocked heart arteries—an experimental treatment he calls the “liberation procedure”— can relieve symptoms. The idea is a radical departure from the conventional belief that multiple sclerosis is caused by a malfunctioning immune system and inflammation. The new theory has taken off on the Internet, inspiring hope among patients, interest from some researchers and scorn from others. Supporters consider it an outside-the-box idea that could transform the treatment of the disease. Critics call it an outlandish notion that will probably waste time and money, and may harm patients.
With a nudge from the new health care law and pressure from Medicare, hospitals, doctors and nurses are struggling to prepare for explosive growth in the numbers of high-risk elderly patients. More than 40% of adult patients in acute care hospital beds are 65 or older. Seventy million Americans will have turned 65 by 2030. They include the 85-and-older cohort, the nation’s fastest-growing age group. Elderly people often have multiple chronic illnesses, expensive to treat, and they are apt to require costly hospital readmissions, sometimes as often as 10 times in a single year.
Experts know that there are racial disparities in the frequency of severe sepsis, a condition in which people develop severe infections accompanied by organ dysfunction. But they are still working to understand why such differences exist and the best strategies to use to minimize them. According to the results of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, black patients have a greater incidence of severe sepsis than white patients -- and that is due to both higher rates of infections and a higher risk of conditions that lead to organ failure.
Do hospitals, like resort hotels, have an offseason? If they do, the month of July might be it. The so-called July effect has long been suspected. It's based on the fact that new U.S. doctors start their residencies (in-hospital training) each July 1 in thousands of "teaching hospitals" nationwide. But until recently, the idea that hospitals are especially dangerous in July was little studied. Now, some study results are in. And if you are hospital-bound in the next few weeks, you can find cause for both reassurance and worry.
A new study by Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Steven Nissen, MD, strengthens his previous findings about the potential dangers of the diabetes drug Avandia. In 2007, Nissen rocked the medical community when the New England Journal of Medicine published his research that showed people taking the drug were at higher risk of heart attack. Nissen's latest analysis was published in Archives of Internal Medicine today. The study by Nissen, chairman of the Clinic's department of cardiology, and Clinic statistician Kathy Wolski, revealed an increased heart attack risk -- between a 28% and 39% increase -- among patients taking the common type 2 diabetes drug.