By Helen K. Kelley
Living donor transplant offers alternative for patients with liver failure For people in need of a liver transplant, waiting for an organ from a deceased donor can seem endless. Fortunately, living-donor transplantation offers a more immediate solution for some patients. According to Marwan Kazimi, M.D., a multi-organ transplant, hepatobiliary surgeon and Surgical ... Continue Reading
By Stephen M. Anderson, M.D.
Regional anesthesia plays an important role in patient recovery. Opioid-sparing techniques show benefits including decreased length of stay (LOS), improved postoperative pulmonary function and decreased overall morbidity and mortality. This article will discuss indications for regional anesthesia for abdominal surgery, the techniques by which they are used, and the risks and ... Continue Reading
By Mark B. Wilkiemeyer, M.D., FACS Abdominal wall hernia, simply defined as a space or gap in the abdominal wall, is one of the most common complaints seen by the practicing general surgeon. Literature tends to focus on management of hernia once it is identified and classified, but this ignores the necessary diagnostic steps to correctly classify the location of the hernia. ... Continue Reading
By Sarah McClellan, MPH, and Ceana Nezhat, M.D. Historically, pregnancy has been a time of joy and apprehension. During the Renaissance, women would write out their wills as soon as they became pregnant.2 History, in fact, is full of maternal death. Thomas Jefferson lost his wife following childbirth in 1782. Princess Charlotte of Wales, granddaughter of King George III and ... Continue Reading
By Iris Krishna, M.D., MPH One of the more commonly encountered medical complications in pregnancy is diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus in pregnancy is characterized as pregestational or gestational diabetes. Pregestational diabetes is diagnosed prior to pregnancy and affects approximately 1 percent of pregnancies, while gestational diabetes is diagnosed during pregnancy ... Continue Reading
By Laura E Gilbertson, M.D., Milad Sharifpour, M.D., and Grant C Lynde, M.D. More than 75,000 pregnant patients undergo non-obstetric surgery in the United States each year. Fortunately, good preparation and planning can lead to good outcomes for both mother and child. Finding physicians and hospitals with experience in caring for parturients with comorbid conditions is ... Continue Reading
By Marisa Lawrence, MD According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 36.5 percent of adults in the United States 2011-2014 are obese – a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30kg/m2. 1 Health effects include diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypertension, osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnea and deep venous thrombosis (DVT). Severe obesity is a BMI ... Continue Reading
By Venk Lakshminarayanan, MD, Ph.D. Traditional bronchoscopy is a procedure allowing direct visualization of the tracheobronchial trees of the airway. Historically, the main types of bronchoscopy are rigid and flexible. Flexible bronchoscopy allows for visualization of the lumen, mucosa of the trachea, proximal airways and segmental airways to the third generation of segmental ... Continue Reading
By Jeffrey S. Cohen, MD FACS FASCRS Over the last 20 years, minimally invasive colon and rectal surgery has become widely accepted as the optimal approach for both benign and malignant pathologies. Laparoscopy offers the proven benefit of a minimally invasive approach that results in excellent outcomes, shorter hospital stays, decreased patient discomfort and ... Continue Reading
By Nisha Lakhi, M.D., and Ceana Nezhat, M.D. The history of endoscopy is a story inextricably bound by the human energies of character and charisma, persistence and insistence. Over the course of several centuries, many great thinkers and visionaries have established the rudimentary foundation that minimally invasive surgery stands upon today. However it was the Persian ... Continue Reading
By Rajesh Laungani, MD & Nikhil L. Shah DO, MPH From ATLANTA Medicine, 2014, Vol. 85, No. 2 Historically, urology has embraced and even pioneered the use of innovative technology, especially with respect to integrating minimally invasive means for both diagnosis and treatment of disease. This trend began with endoscopy – the use of a patients natural openings, in ... Continue Reading
by Aneesh K. Kautilya Mehta, M.D., Rachel Jacqueline Friedman-Moraco, M.D., and George Marshall Lyon III, M.D. Infections remain a major source of morbidity in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Many of these infections may be prevented by appropriate vaccination of SOT patients, their family members and their healthcare providers. Since vaccine responses may be ... Continue Reading
Transplant and reconstructive surgeons from Emory University Hospital successfully performed a rare complete hand transplant on 21-year-old. The 19-hour surgery took place on Saturday, March 12 and involved multiple teams of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and operating room support staff. Two teams – one dedicated to the patient – and the other to the donor arm – ... Continue Reading
In June, thoracic surgeon Saeid Khansarinia, M.D., implanted a diaphragm pacing system using a minimally invasive thoracic surgery technique, as opposed to an abdominal procedure due to the patient’s specific needs. The modified surgical method will make it possible for Lynn Wheeler of Fayetteville, Ga., to breathe more naturally using an implanted diaphragm pacer instead of ... Continue Reading
Cleansing a patient’s skin prior to surgery with chlorhexidine alcohol – instead of the more commonly used povidone iodine - has proven to be a more effective and powerful barrier to reducing or preventing infections after surgery. Research comparing the two strategies was reported in the Jan. 7, 2010, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was ... Continue Reading
