Hospitals in about a dozen states are testing whether some simple steps, such as arm-strengthening exercises, could reduce the risk of one of breast cancer's troubling legacies—the painful and sometimes severe arm swelling called lymphedema. Lymphedema has long been a neglected side effect of cancer surgery and radiation: Many women say they never were warned, even though spotting this problem early improves outcomes.
About half of the nursing homes in Texas nursing homes received below-average scores under a new federal system that rates the quality of more than 15,000 facilities nationwide. The ratings were based on state health inspection reports, three years of complaint investigations, staff performance, and resident care. Some believe, however, that the ratings system is well-intended but misleading.
In its second-annual report on the top 10 technology-related safety hazards at hospitals, the ECRI Institute has added five new hazards to this year's list. The revisions are based on the prevalence and severity of the reports the group has received over the past year, recalls and actions it has reviewed, and other published reports. New on the list: air embolisms from contrast media injectors, retained devices and unretrieved fragments, fiber optic light-source burns, anesthesia hazards from inadequate pre-use inspection, and misleading displays on medical devices.
Ohio hospitals will now be required to make infection information public, despite an attempt by the state's Hospital Association to stop it. The group hoped to curtail the measure, trying to push through legislation. The Hospital Measures Advisory Council recommended in a 2006 law that hospitals disclose information about common infections, and whether facilities are vigilant about practices that reduce infection risk.
As the Cleveland Clinic moves closer to using face transplantation surgery to help disfigured combat veterans, it is working closely with the U.S. military to avoid tissue rejection without drugs that dangerously suppress the immune system. The Defense Department is following the work of Clinic surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow, who led a team that performed the first face transplant in the United States. The patient, a woman who has not been identified, is recovering at the Clinic. Surgeons replaced 80% of her face, including the nose, cheekbones, upper lip and lower eyelids. The face and underlying anatomy came from an organ donor. The Clinic has been collaborating with the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, which houses the Army burn center and treats some of the most badly injured veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
U.S. scientists have created the first human model for studying a devastating nerve disease, which allows them to watch how the disease develops and could help researchers find a way to treat it. The finding marks the latest advance in research that reprograms ordinary cells to look and act like embryonic stem cells—the master cells of the body that can produce any type of tissue or blood cell.