Medical blog » Procedures

Dance Marathon Benefits Children's Hospital

admin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 03:48:30 +0000

About 500 University of Nebraska students participated in a 12-hour dance marathon in Lincoln Friday night into Saturday morning that raised more than $35,000 for Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha.
The event ran from 8 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday. Proceeds will help the hospital’s Child-Life Program and Rainbow House.
â€œChild-Life Program just gives different opportunities for the kids while they’re staying at the hospital, such as play opportunities, distractions from painful procedures and then the Rainbow House is great, they give families who have come in from out of state or out of the region a nice place to stay for the long-term while their child receives long-term care,” says hospital public relations director Eric Hamilton.
The hospital reports treating 250,000 children in 2008.

Panthers owner Richardson released from hospital

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:33:12 +0000

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson has been released from the hospital 12 days after undergoing a heart transplant.
Richardson left Carolinas Medical Center on Thursday after quickly regaining his strength following the surgery on Feb. 1. A team spokesman said Richardson has responded well and will continue to be monitored by doctors.
The full recovery period takes between three and six months.
The 72-year-old Richardson had a history of heart problems and was placed on the heart donor list in December. He had the transplant on Super Bowl Sunday in a five-hour procedure.

Medical center shifts jobs north

admin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:49:15 +0000

Miami County residents can rest assured that upcoming personnel changes at Miami County Medical Center will not result in a reduction of health care services.
On Monday, Miami County Medical Center Chief Operations Officer Jerry Wiesner verified that eight job positions are going to be transferred to Olathe Medical Center as part of an ongoing process. However, he said, the jobs to be transferred are not health care positions, and the medical center will not be reducing its health care services. He also emphasized that no positions are being eliminated.
“I believe eight people are being transferred,” Wiesner said. “We’ve never had layoffs and we never plan to have layoffs. We have jobs available for everyone.”
The positions being transferred to Olathe Health System’s other hospital are business office jobs and, so far, none of the employees involved have refused to make the move.
“We’ve been centralizing our business office for several years. It’s a system-wide initiative to improve our organization,” Wiesner said, adding that centralization of business and accounting functions is not just a trend in the health care industry, but in other industries, too. The reason, he said, is that it increases efficiency and reduces costs.
Health care services at Miami County Medical Center will not be reduced in any way, as a result of these personnel changes, he said. If anything, the changes will help assure that the medical center can continue to provide the best care and most up-to-date technology available.
In fact, Wiesner said, since Miami County Hospital joined Olathe Health System and became Miami County Medical Center in 1996, the facility has doubled both its staff and its health care capabilities.
“We’ve added over 100 procedures and tests, including a full orthopedic program, podiatric surgery and general surgery,” he said.
In addition to inpatient health care, the medical center offers 24-hour emergency care by board-certified emergency physicians, as well as support services such as radiology, laboratory, respiratory therapy, physical therapy, occupational and speech therapy and social services.
Wiesner said even though billing functions will be located in Olathe, Miami County patients need not worry that they won’t be able to obtain answers to their billing questions or that they’ll have to pay long distance rates to do so.
“For patients who have questions with their bills, we’re setting up an 800 number, so they won’t have to call long distance,” he said.
Wiesner said he and other Olathe Health System officials anticipate that the changes will be completed by Feb. 1, 2009.

Usher's wife recovering after cardiac arrest

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:15:13 +0000

SAO PAULO (AP) — The wife of R&B singer Usher continues to recover in a Sao Paulo hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest shortly before undergoing plastic surgery, the spokeswoman of the doctor who was to perform the procedure said Thursday.
Ellen Dastry, spokeswoman for plastic surgeon Silvio Sterman, says Tameka Raymond checked into the Sao Rafael Hospital last Friday for a “simple liposuction.” Dastry said that Raymond suffered a cardiac arrest while being anesthetized for the procedure “but was revived in less than a minute by heart massage.” She was then placed in an induced coma before being taken to the intensive-care unit, a procedure Dastry said was “absolutely normal” and performed in order to “avoid unnecessary complications.”
That same day Raymond was transferred to Sao Paulo’s posh and better-equipped Sirio-Libanes Hospital where she is recovering, Dastry said without providing further details.
At Sirio-Libanes, a spokeswoman would only say that Raymond remains hospitalized. She explained that Raymond’s family requested that no information regarding her condition be divulged by the hospital. She did not give her name, per hospital rules.
Usher was supposed to perform at music mogul Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party last Saturday, but backed out to come to Brazil to be with his wife.
The 30-year-old R&B star and his wife were married in August 2007. They have two young sons, 2-year-old Usher Raymond V and 2-month-old Naveid Ely Raymond.

Nevada secretary of state in Reno hospital

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:04:48 +0000

RENO, Nev.—A spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state says Ross Miller is in a Reno hospital, resting and recovering after undergoing a follow-up procedure to stop bleeding from nasal surgery.
Spokesman Bob Walsh says Miller had the cauterization procedure Monday after having surgery to repair a deviated septum last week.
Walsh says Miller expects to be released from the hospital by Tuesday and could be discharged as early as Monday night.
Walsh says Miller has spoken with his chief of staff and is doing well.

FDA To Study Dermal Filler Side Effects

admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:06:46 +0000

Users of dermal fillers might want to think twice before the use they products to smooth out deep lines and wrinkles on their face. This week the Food and Drug Administration will review reports of unexpected side effects of the popular cosmetic procedure.
CBS4’s Medical Editor Dr. Dave Hnida pointed out the dermal fillers are not the same as Botox.
“These are products containing collagen and proteins which are injected into the face to puff up and smooth out the lines of aging,” Hnida said.
The FDA says there have been some problems with the products, so they’ve called in a panel of experts to see if warning labels need to be changed so consumers know what they are getting into.
The FDA says it has received reports of more than 900 cases of reactions to some dermal fillers and termed the reactions as “serious and unexpected.”
The agency has not said which products have caused problems, but the most popular dermal fillers include Restylane, Juvederm, Perlane and Artefil.
Dermal fillers have been around for close to 20 years but their use has really taken off within the past 10 years. That’s what the FDA wants to look at the more than 900 problems from January 2003 to September 2008.
“Most of the problems happened when the injections were given by someone other than a physician,” Hnida said.
The allergic reactions were most likely to happen to people who were on their second third or fourth series of injections.
(Â© MMVIII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

OC woman pleads guilty in medical fraud case

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:56:41 +0000

COSTA MESA, Calif.—A woman who helped recruit patients to undergo unnecessary surgeries as part of a $154 million medical insurance fraud has pleaded guilty to 22 charges.
Sue Nanda, 40, of Costa Mesa, entered her plea Friday in Orange County Superior Court. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 where she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Nanda worked for the now-shuttered Unity Outpatient Surgery Center in Buena Park, targeting employees from businesses in 39 states who were covered by PPO insurance plans. She recruited more than 170 people from 16 states to undergo unnecessary surgical procedures in exchange for money or cheap cosmetic surgeries.
Nineteen people, including three doctors, have been charged in the alleged scheme. Six have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

Bovie Medical Corporation Announces FDA 510(K) Clearance to Market …

admin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:07:30 +0000

MELVILLE, N.Y., Nov 19, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Bovie Medical Corporation (the “Company”) (NYSE Alternext US: BVX), a
manufacturer and marketer of electrosurgical products, today announced
the Company received 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to market its SEER tissue resection device intended
for initial use in liver oncology surgery. The SEER device uses
conductive sintered steel as an electrode for radio frequency (RF) for
cutting and coagulation. The process involves delivery of RF current and
sterile saline for resection and coagulation in surgical procedures. The
Company anticipates developing additional products based on the SEER
technology for use in orthopedic and blood vessel sealing procedures.
The worldwide market size for the liver and orthopedic market is
expected to total $500 million in 2009.

Children’s hospital gets $50M donation

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 04:03:12 +0000

children’s hospital, the university and
announced Tuesday.
The hospital, slated to open in 2011, will be named the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital in recognition of the gift, which Caroline Amplatz gave to honor her father.
Kurt Amplatz, 84, was a professor of radiology at the university for more than 40 years, and was a pioneer of devices that use catheters to repair heart defects, sparing thousands of patients from having to undergo open-heart surgery. He founded Plymouth-based AGA Medical in 1995.
“My hope is that the Amplatz Children’s Hospital will follow in my father’s footsteps with steadfast and unrelenting determination to improve and save lives,” Caroline Amplatz said.
The $50 million, given over the next 12 years, will help pay for programs and infrastructure at the hospital, including a hybrid catheterization lab able to accommodate a cardiac surgical team if it’s needed during a less-invasive procedure.

FDA recalls chemical agent used in eye surgery

admin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:32:46 +0000

Federal regulators are calling on physicians to return a chemical agent made by Advanced Medical Optics Inc., saying it has been linked to dozens of eye problems.
The Food and Drug Administration issued a recall on lot number UD30654 of Healon D, a surgical agent used in cornea transplants, cataract removal and other ophthalmic procedures. The product comes prepackaged in a syringe and is applied using a small tube.
The FDA classified the recall as ‘class I,’ which means the product could “cause serious health problems or death.”
The Santa Ana, Calif.-based manufacturer already issued its own recall on the lots of Healon in late October. However, the company has only recovered 964 of the 1,450 units that were distributed on the market.
Advanced Medical Optics has received 66 reports of negative reactions with the product, including inflammation of the eye. Testing of the recalled product revealed elevated levels of endotoxin, which has been associated with eye problems.
The FDA urged customers to remove the products from inventory and contact the company at 1-877-AMO-4LIFE to arrange a return.
Shares of Advanced Medical Optics added 4 cents to $6.65 in morning trading.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed