Category: Hospital Reports Details of Three Full-Face Transplants

MEwens
Three people received full-face transplants at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston this year.
Now, physicians are reporting the details of the extensive procedures — which include grafting not only the skin, but also nerves, muscles, blood vessels, and structures like the nose. The report appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
We’ve covered […]

MEwens
As we reported last month, Grammy-winner Adele has been sidelined by a vocal-cord hemorrhage.
The singer underwent surgery last week to treat the problem, and our colleagues over at the WSJ’s Speakeasy blog recently had a chat with her surgeon.
Without discussing the specifics of her case, Steven Zeitels, director of the Voice Center at […]

MEwens
Consumers are usually unable to get accurate information about how much medical treatment will cost them before they receive it, a new government study has found.
Investigators from the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency which works for Congress, tried to get upfront estimates from a variety of hospitals in Denver for the price […]

MEwens
If you’re obese and live with someone who goes through weight-loss surgery, you, too, may lose a few pounds.
That apparent halo effect was seen in a small study by Stanford University researchers, who found that obese adult family members of gastric-bypass patients lost about 3.4% of their body weight on average — results […]

MEwens
Cloning Technique Success: Researchers reported in Nature that they created 13 early-stage human embryos that were partial clones of diabetic patients, albeit abnormal ones, with three sets of chromosomes instead of the usual two, the WSJ reports. That extra set would have to be eliminated if the cloning technique were ever to be […]

MEwens
A new online tool to prepare patients for surgery and other invasive procedures aims to reduce the stress and anxiety that accompanies many medical decisions.
Boston-based Health Dialog today launched HD Care Compass, a web and mobile site with patient guides on what to expect before, during and after seven major procedures, including cardiac […]

Katherine Hobson
New guidelines for stricter testing of organ donors are raising concerns among transplant surgeons, who fear they may limit availability of organs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday issued new guidelines recommending that all organ donors be checked for HIV and hepatitis B and C with the most sensitive screening method, […]

MEwens
Melanoma Treatment Option: The FDA approved vemurafenib, a treatment from Roche Holding and Daiichi Sankyo aimed at the half of metastatic melanoma patients whose cancer is driven by a specific genetic mutation, the WSJ reports. The treatment, to be sold under the brand name Zelboraf, will be taken for about six months and […]

MEwens
We can now see the newly transplanted face of Charla Nash, the woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee in 2009.
Nash received a face transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in May. A 20-hour surgery gave her a new forehead, nasal area, lips, facial skin, facial-animation muscles and nerves from a deceased donor.
Surgeons […]

MEwens
Stressful situations are a breeding ground for uncivil behavior. So it’s no surprise that operating rooms — where life and death themselves are at stake — see their fair share of colleague-on-colleague rudeness and even abuse.
A commentary published in the Archives of Surgery says that a general increase in societal rudeness combined with […]