Cardiac Arrest Growing More Common in the Delivery Room?
Cardiac arrest during labor and delivery appeared more common than previously seen — particularly for older, Black, and low-income pregnant patients — but with better survival rates, according to a national study. Among women admitted for delivery in the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2017 to 2019, cardiac arrest occurred in about one in 9,000 […]
These Surgeries Made the Sharpest Turns to Outpatient Setting After COVID
Some common general surgeries had the biggest migrations to the outpatient setting during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a retrospective cohort study confirmed. Compared with the previous few years, calendar year 2020 saw disproportionately more outpatient cases of mastectomy for cancer, minimally invasive adrenalectomy, thyroid lobectomy, breast lumpectomy, minimally invasive ventral hernia repair, […]
NFL Concussion Symptoms Tied to Cognitive Function Decades Later
Former National Football League (NFL) players who experienced concussion symptoms during their playing careers performed worse on cognitive tests later in life, cross-sectional data showed. Retrospectively reported concussion symptoms were associated with worse performance on a battery of tests that assessed episodic memory, sustained attention, processing speed, and vocabulary nearly 30 years later, reported Laura […]
4 Signs You’re Experiencing Secondhand Stress (And What To Do About It)
Hispanolistic via Getty Images It’s a human response to absorb other people’s emotions during tough situations, but that can lead to issues like secondhand stress. It can be easy to get swept up in other people’s problems or in situations that are largely out of your control. “At a fundamental level, we are social creatures. […]
Opinion | Death Literacy Among Healthcare Professionals Is Dismal
During a recent meeting with our hospice team, several staff members raised concerns about the limited understanding of the signs of dying and appropriate interventions to care for patients at the end of life. This is a particular challenge in the facilities where our patients reside — nursing homes and assisted living facilities. In another […]
I Thought I Had A Headache. It Turned Out To Be Herpes (HSV-1) — In My Brain.
The author during her stay at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was treated for encephalitis in 2015. “I do not remember this day,” she writes. Courtesy of Brigid Ward On Oct. 28, 2015, I left my high school teaching job early because I thought I had the flu. I had been […]
Medical School Dating and Relationships 101
[embedded content] Some people will tell you that relationships during medical school are impossible. They’ll say that you don’t have enough time for romance and you should focus solely on your studies. But I disagree. Although medical school is incredibly demanding, to say that it’s impossible to have a healthy relationship during this time is […]
Duodenoscopes With Disposable Caps Led to Less Microbial Contamination
Use of duodenoscopes with disposable elevator caps during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) led to lower rates of contamination following high-level disinfection compared with standard scope designs, and did not affect the technical performance and safety of ERCP, the randomized ICECAP trial showed. Among over 500 patients undergoing ERCP, persistent microbial contamination was detected in 3.8% […]
Experts Say Tracking Pathogens in Sewage Works, but Needs Sustained Investment
Surveillance of wastewater systems proved useful during the COVID-19 pandemic and merits further investment to respond to future threats, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). But there’s room for improvement. The report highlights five core pillars for developing a stronger National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), calling […]
Can Biomarkers Give Early Heads-Up on Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Myocarditis?
In the quest to catch myocarditis earlier during immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy for cancer, researchers have found a potential role for routinely measured biomarkers. Of 2,606 consecutive ICI recipients at Michigan Medicine, the 1% who developed myocarditis often or always had elevated high-sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT; 100%), alanine aminotransferase (ALT; 88.9%), aspartate aminotransferase (AST; […]