News by Subject Medicine & Health

Of four research participants living with traumatic, motor complete spinal cord injury, two are able to walk over ground with epidural stimulation following epidural stimulation paired with daily locomotor training. In addition, all four participants achieved independent standing and trunk stability when using the stimulation and maintaining their mental focus. The study was conducted at the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville and is published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

Failure rates in some surgical mesh products used to treat prolapse injury are unacceptably high according to a new biomedical review conducted by a medical materials expert, who also believes patients should have received more information around the risk before being treated for urinary incontinence with surgical mesh products.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina and Brigham Young University conducted a study to observe walking biomechanics of 130 subjects who have had ACL reconstruction surgery. They found people who report lingering symptoms post-surgery either underload their injured leg (6-12 months after surgery) or overload the injured leg (after the 24-month mark), as compared to those who have had the surgery but no longer report symptoms.

Women receiving silicone breast implants may be at increased risk of several rare adverse outcomes compared to the general population, reports a study in Annals of Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Muscle relaxants are a necessary part of anesthesia during certain major operations. Studies have, however, hinted at respiratory risks connected with these drugs. POPULAR, a major prospective observational European study supported by the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) and led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has confirmed the association between use of muscle relaxants and respiratory complications and assessed the chances of the current avoidance strategies.

Four research participants with chronic, complete cervical spinal cord injury, persistent low resting blood pressure and blood pressure decrease when sitting up experienced improvements in blood pressure and heart rate regulation during and after spinal cord epidural stimulation (scES).

In a new analysis of data submitted to Maryland's state trauma registry from 2005 to 2017, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that gunshot victims are approximately five times more likely to require blood transfusions, they require 10 times more blood units and are 14 times more likely to die than people seriously injured by motor vehicles, non-gun assaults, falls or stabs.

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act does not appear to have reduced disparities in the use of regionalized surgical care among vulnerable persons.