Understanding patients ’ religious and spiritual beliefs promotes healing
Religious and spiritual experiences have shaped my worldview since I was a teenager. At age 13, I celebrated my bar mitzvah. Later that year, I underwent an appendectomy. A priest asked my mother if he could pray for me prior to the operation. My mother did not hesitate to accept the priest’s blessing. I learned at Read more… Understanding patients’ religious and spiritual beliefs promotes healing originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 6, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Primary Care Psychiatry Source Type: blogs

“This Doesn’t Usually Hurt that Much”: Patients With Fibromyalgia Spectrum Disorder
By HANS DUVEFELT Specialists in orthopedics and general surgery often want us, the primary care doctors, to manage postoperative pain. I don’t like that. First, I don’t know as much as the surgeons about the typical, expected recovery from their procedures. My own appendectomy in Sweden in 1972 was an open one that I stayed in the hospital for several days for (and nobody mentioned that there were such things as pain medications). I’m sure a laparoscopic one leaves you in less pain, but I don’t personally know by how much. Postoperative pain could be an indicator of complications. Why would a surgeon not w...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 6, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care fibromyalgia spectrum disorder Hans Duvefelt Source Type: blogs

Health care confusion: Where do leadership and well-being intersect?
I was born in Qu ébec, the last of a family of six. My father was a family physician in a small community, and his office was in our house. I remember that the practice was busy, with lots of kids crying at night. At the hospital, he would perform minor surgery, like an appendectomy. AndRead more …Find jobs at  Careers by KevinMD.com.  Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.  Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 2, 2021 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/elisabeth-fontaine-and-jill-berry-bowen" rel="tag" > Elisabeth Fontaine, MD and Jill Berry Bowen, RN, MBA < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Practice Management Source Type: blogs

A Laparoscopy Assistance Platform to Optimize Minimally Invasive Surgery: Interview with Anne Osdoit, CEO of MastOR
Minimally invasive surgery has played a huge role in improving patient outcomes, and reducing morbidity and recovery times compared with traditional surgical techniques. However, it can be a little tricky for surgeons to operate through tiny incisions and use complicated equipment, meaning that there is often a significant learning curve and training period involved. Robotics is well suited to aiding surgeons in minimally invasive surgery and surgical robots have made an impact on the field. However, they come with a variety of limitations including their expense, size, and need for additional training, specific consuma...
Source: Medgadget - July 30, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive GI Ob/Gyn Orthopedic Surgery Thoracic Surgery Urology Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs

Corona times: Clinical cardiology gets up from graveyard, for a while !
Surprised to see many of my colleagues, physicians and fellows are beaming with a new pride even in this troubled corona times. Paradoxically, I could see some fresh clinical sense in their approach to problems as well. Each one of them had a story to tell. Sir, I could suddenly diagnose heart failure for the first time with my eyes and ears without NT- Pro BNP or E/E’ . I agree with you sir, textbooks seem to be right. There was indeed basal rales and JVP was elevated. I was astonished I could diagnose CHF clinically! Suddenly, I found, I have acquired the rare expertise of giving fitness to an emergency appendect...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - May 18, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Corona times: Clinical cardiology wakes up from deep coma, for a while !
Surprised to see many of my colleagues, physicians and fellows are beaming with new pride even in this troubled corona times. Paradoxically, I could see some fresh clinical sense in their approach to problems as well. Each one of them had a story to tell Sir, I could suddenly diagnose heart failure for the first time with my eyes and ears without NT- Pro BNP or E/E’ . I agree with you sir, textbooks seem to be right. There was indeed basal rales and JVP was elevated. I was astonished I could diagnose CHF clinically! I feel proud, that I have acquired the rare expertise of giving fitness to an emergency appendectomy...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - May 18, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Undergoing an appendectomy in a pandemic
The world is paused. But is it? Just because the world is experiencing a pandemic does not mean that the rest of the world ’s ailments all of a sudden go away.  Their priority may fall in ranking, but they persist. Health and disease continue. I ate lunch and had severe abdominal pain shortly thereafter.  Perhaps […]Find jobs at  Careers by KevinMD.com.  Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.  Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 5, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ni-cheng-liang" rel="tag" > Ni-Cheng Liang, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID-19 coronavirus Infectious Disease Surgery Source Type: blogs

The Legacy of Forced Sterilizations
Brooke Warren Phuoc Le By PHUOC LE, MD and BROOKE WARREN In the 1970s, Jean Whitehorse, a member of the Navajo Nation, went to a hospital in New Mexico for acute appendicitis. Years later, she found out the procedure performed was not just an appendectomy – she had been sterilized via tubal ligation. Around the same time, a Northern Cheyenne woman was told by a doctor that a hysterectomy would cure her headaches. After the procedure, her headaches persisted. Later, she found out a brain tumor was causing her pain, not a uterine problem. Like Whitehorse and the Northern Cheyenne woman, thousands of Nati...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 19, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health disparities Medical Practice Physicians Arc Health Brooke Warren eugenics legal system native american Phuoc Le sterlilizations Source Type: blogs

The Social Context and Vulnerabilities that Challenge Health Care in the San Joaquin Valley of California
By ALYA AHMAD, MD Call it what you want, white privilege and health disparity appear to be two sides of the same coin. We used to consider ethnic or genetic variants as risk factors, prognostic to health conditions. However, the social determinants of health (SDOH) have increasingly become more relevant as causes of disease prevalence and complexity in health care. As a pediatric hospitalist in the San Joaquin Valley region, I encounter these social determinants daily. They were particularly evident as I treated a 12-year old Hispanic boy who was admitted with a ruptured appendix and developed a complicated abscess,...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 4, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health disparities Medical Practice Patients Alya Ahmad California health disparity health equity San Joaquin Valley SDoH Social Determinants of Health Source Type: blogs

High Risk Surgical Patients Have Lower Mortality Rates at Major Teaching Hospitals
I firmly believe that it's important to get oneself to a major teaching hospital if you fall into the category of a high risk, general surgery patient. A recent article put some numbers to this advice (see:High risk patients have lower mortality rates at major teaching hospitals). Below is an excerpt from the article:New research published in the Annals of Surgery shows that high-risk general surgery patients have greater survival rates at major teaching hospitals than at non-teaching hospitals....The 30-day mortality rate for these high-risk patients was 15.9% at major teaching hospitals, compared with 18.2% at ...
Source: Lab Soft News - October 30, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Delivery Hospital Financial Medical Research Population Health Public Health Quality of Care Source Type: blogs

How are hospitals supposed to reduce readmissions? Part III
By KIP SULLIVAN, JD The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and other proponents of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) justified their support for the HRRP with the claim that research had already demonstrated how hospitals could reduce readmissions for all Medicare fee-for-service patients, not just for groups of carefully selected patients. In this three-part series, I am reviewing the evidence for that claim. We saw in Part I and Part II that the research MedPAC cited in its 2007 report to Congress (the report Congress relied on in authorizing the HRRP) contained no studies supporting tha...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 14, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Policy Medicare health reform Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program HRRP Kip Sullivan MedPAC Source Type: blogs

How to help your doctor with diagnosis
To treat any condition, the doctor needs to know what it is. You would not expect to have your sore ankle treated with penicillin or to have an appendectomy recommended for your sore throat. While this may be self-evident, I know of at least one patient who had a normal appendix removed because the surgeon […]Find jobs at  Careers by KevinMD.com.  Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.  Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 5, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/edward-hoffer" rel="tag" > Edward Hoffer, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Physician Primary Care Source Type: blogs

Surgery for appendicitis? Antibiotics alone may be enough
I remember when my best friend in fifth grade couldn’t make our much-anticipated end-of-the-school-year camping trip because he had just undergone surgery for appendicitis. Now I prevent kids from participating in their school activities for four to six weeks after I remove their appendix. But what is the appendix, why do we have an organ that causes so many problems, and do you need surgery for appendicitis? Role of the appendix is unclear The appendix is a fingerlike tube, about three to four inches long, that comes off of the first portion of the colon. It is normally located in the lower right abdomen, just after the...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 9, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christopher J. Burns, MD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Surgery Source Type: blogs

The appendix is implicated in Parkinson ’s disease
Clumps of alpha-synuclein (red) in the appendix of a healthy individual suggests the possibilitythat the gut plays a role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson diseaseThe appendix may contribute to a person ’s chances of developing Parkinson’s disease. An analysis of data from nearly 1.7 million Swedes found that those who’d had their appendix removed had a lower overall risk of Parkinson’s disease. Also, samples of appendix tissue from healthy individuals revealed protein clumps similar to those found in the brains of Parkinson ’s patients, researchers report online October 31 in Science Translational ...
Source: neuropathology blog - November 5, 2018 Category: Radiology Tags: parkinson disease Source Type: blogs

Antibiotics vs. surgery for appendicitis: What one surgeon thinks
Here are a few thoughts about the latest chapter in the never-ending debate about antibiotics vs. surgery for the treatment of uncomplicated appendicitis. You will recall the randomized controlled trial from Finland published in 2015 that found a 27% rate of failure of antibiotics within the first year. Now that the patients have now been followed for five years, 100 (39%) of the 246 patients treated with antibiotics have experienced persistent or recurrent symptoms requiring appendectomy. Depending on your point of view, this shows that antibiotics are successful for the treatment of simple appendicitis or not. Continue...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 16, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/skeptical-scalpel" rel="tag" > Skeptical Scalpel, MD < /a > Tags: Conditions Infectious Disease Surgery Source Type: blogs