A pediatric orthopedic surgeon is warning about the potential for hip problems in babies now that swaddling has made a comeback.

Nicholas Clarke of Southampton University Hospital in England wrote in the Archives of Disease in Childhood that swaddling can be safe, so long as it doesn’t prevent the baby’s legs from bending up and out at the hips – a position that allows for the natural development of hip joints. The legs must not be tightly wrapped, he wrote.

He noted nine of 10 infants in North America are now swaddled in the first six months of life, and demand for swaddling clothes soared by 61% in the U.K. between 2010 and 2011.

Swaddling is used to soothe a baby and help them sleep, but pulling the blanket around the baby too tightly could cause hip misalignment, which could turn into osteoarthritis later in life, Clarke said.

Source: http://bit.ly/1f1HVrL

A cure for baldness has long eluded scientists, but a group of researchers say they have created a first-of-its-kind hair-restoration method that may actually get a person to grow new hair. This could be especially helpful for women, burn victims and other hair-loss patients who can’t be helped with traditional hair-loss methods.

“It’s really amazing because, right now, the transplantation of hair is really just a relocation,” said LaPook. “You take hair, generally from the back of the scalp to the front, but you’re limited by the number of follicles. Well, what a very clever group at Columbia University Medical Center did … is that they went to the cells at the base of the hair, and they took them outside, put them in a petri dish and multiplied them and created a lot more of the cells that then make the follicles, and then they were able to put them back into human, bald skin that was grafted onto the back of mice; four to six weeks later – hair.”

The hair was like “baby hair,” LaPook said. “But they think over time they’ll figure out a way to get it. They also don’t know after the first hair falls out, will another one grow back, but it’s really fascinating.”

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The data, released by the CQC, also shows that whistleblowers have experimented with to warn of failings at practically each and every medical center now deemed to be posing the
optimum pitfalls.

Previous evening, ministers said the results from the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
confirmed an urgent want to listen to healthcare facility workers and rework the lifestyle
of the NHS.

The evaluation of all NHS trusts in England is the 1st by watchdogs because
they overhauled their methods, soon after getting commonly criticized for lacking a
collection of scandals.

Labor seized on the figures as proof the NHS was failing, accusing ministers
of leaving hospitals on a financial knife-edge which was jeopardising
patient care.

But Jeremy Hunt, the Wellness Secretary, explained the conclusions mirrored a tough
and transparent method to medical center expectations and accused the final
Govt of hiding NHS failings, with tragic implications.

All 161 trusts have been divided into 6 bands, primarily based on indicators this sort of as large
death prices, extended waiting around occasions, botched functions and bad an infection
manage.

Of those, forty four were in the greatest two chance bands – like 41 in which physicians,
nurses and other workers have been so nervous about failings and hazards to
patients that they contacted CQC about worries, the formal data demonstrates.

The watchdog disclosed that in overall, more than 400 NHS hospital
whistleblowers turned to them in the last 12 months due to the fact of concerns
which had been found to be significant.

Earlier this 7 days, David Prior, the regulators chairman, warned of a
chilling society in the NHS which meant even the most alpha-male
surgeons felt frightened to break ranks and highlight bad treatment.

The CQC assessed all trusts, evaluating their functionality against one hundred fifty actions,
these kinds of as dying rates, an infection ranges and patient pleasure scores, utilizing
a new system of intelligent checking.

Of 44 trusts in the two bands with greatest danger, 24 have been in the maximum
achievable band, like sixteen with large demise rates.

Several are currently in the highlight following investigations by NHS medical
director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh.

Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Have confidence in,
Buckinghamshire Health care NHS Trust, Medway NHS Basis Have confidence in, North
Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust and Tameside Healthcare facility NHS Foundation
Have faith in are previously on unique actions.

But other key hospitals this sort of as Alder Hey Young children’s NHS Basis believe in
and Leeds Educating Hospitals have faith in – which have been placed in the highest
threat band – experienced handed all CQCs prior requirements of assessment.

Considerations at each incorporated troubles lifted by whistleblowers, whilst Leeds was
located to have very poor infection control.

At United Lincolnshire Hospitals believe in, some clients with suspected cancer
waited months for treatment.

Long Accident &amp Crisis waiting instances and high charges of septicaemia among
women in childbirth were identified at College Hospitals of Leicester.

South London Health care NHS Trust, which has now been dissolved, acquired one particular
of the worst scores, with 17 dangers identified, which includes a high proportion
of safety incidents which caused patients damage.

At the a few hospitals it ran – Queen Marys Clinic, Sidcup, Queen Elizabeth
Medical center, Woolwich, and Princess Royal University Healthcare facility, Bromley –
sufferers were remaining in ache and without any individual to chat to about their
considerations, individual surveys identified. The hospitals have not too long ago been taken more than
by other trusts.

At Croydon Overall health Solutions Trust, surveys located comparable dissatisfaction between
patients, who had little self-assurance or trust in nurses.

The technique of NHS regulation is now getting replaced right after becoming discredited as
a tick-box procedure which intended trusts could self-evaluate themselves, and
be rated as safe without inspections, or vital steps this sort of as demise
rates even getting assessed.

Regulators explained the evaluation was a screening resource, not a final judgment.

The info will be utilized to prioritize which trusts ought to be inspected, with the
substantial chance trusts qualified first.

All hospitals will be visited by groups of professional inspectors, to establish
Ofsted-design ratings to be presented to all trusts by 2015.

Final night time Mr Hunt explained: Sadly, below the previous Government, a lack of
transparency about poor care intended problems went unchecked for as well long,
occasionally with tragic effects for sufferers. This Government is being
honest with the community about the top quality of care at their regional hospitals,
and taking tough motion in which specifications aren’t up to scratch. Also often poor care had been permitted to continue due to the fact staff were concerned to
speak out, he stated.

This Govt has a very pleased report on defending whistleblowers and
championing openness, and I am established to go additional and more quickly in
transforming this society, he said.

Andy Burnham, shadow overall health secretary, accused the Federal government of not accepting
accountability for the existing state of the NHS.

He explained: I am worried that the NHS is on the brink listed here of a very, very
hazardous winter season and we need to have to listen to from the Govt what they are doing
to safeguard clients. When are they heading to take obligation for what
is taking place in the NHS correct now and arrive forward with a plan to make
hospitals risk-free?

The CQCs chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, mentioned:
Information from whistleblowers is essential in aiding us uncover poor
care. I inspire any individual who operates in a healthcare facility to talk up when they see
or listen to of care that isnt protected. Well often comply with up information we
obtain

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A daily dose of vitamin D can be used in the battle against Type 2 diabetes, experts have revealed.

Researchers are carrying out a major clinical trial to confirm whether taking vitamin D can prevent or delay the condition, the Daily Express reported.

They believe that the “sunshine vitamin” may reduce diabetes risk by 25 per cent.

The study led by Professor Philip Raskin, from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, is a four-year trial across America which will track 2,500 people age 30 or older who have pre-diabetes.

They will be given daily doses of vitamin D about five times higher than usually recommended

 

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When it comes to altered states of consciousness, humans are nothing if not inventive. A number of new synthetic drugs, opiate painkillers and other substances have emerged recently as increasingly popular among partygoers and drug addicts. And some of these substances are alarming health experts and law enforcement officials.

Here’s a look at five of the most potent of these street drugs.

Few street drugs have as wretched a reputation as desomorphine, a cheap derivative of codeine that’s mixed with gasoline, oil, alcohol or paint thinner. Addicts shoot the concoction directly into their bodies with a hypodermic needle; the drug causes dark, scaly patches of dead and decaying skin. These gave rise to the street name “krokodil,” or crocodile.

While krokodil had previously been confined to Russia and former Soviet Bloc nations, a few cases of krokodil use have started appearing in the United States and other countries. Even those users who kick the habit are often severely disfigured for life, suffering serious scarring, bone damage, amputated limbs, speech impediments, poor motor skills and varying degrees of brain damage.

2C-P

A little-known synthetic hallucinogen with only a brief history of use, 2C-P is reportedly a long-lasting and very potent drug. Its intense psychedelic effects don’t begin until a few hours after a person takes it, but they can last for 10 to 20 hours, according to law enforcement officials.

At a concert in Middlebury, Conn., in September, four teenagers were hospitalized after collapsing almost simultaneously — police suspect 2C-P was the culprit, according to the Hartford Courant. “It was like a light switch went off,” acting Middlebury Police Chief Richard Wildman said in a press statement. Officers used CPR and a defibrillator to treat a teenage male who had stopped breathing and had no pulse, the Courant reports.

Butane hash oil

Also known as amber, honey, wax, ear wax and by its initials BHO, butane hash oil is a highly concentrated form of the active ingredient in marijuana (tetrahydrocannabinol or THC). Use of BHO is known as “dabbing,” because of the way the drug is ingested: Users place a small dab of the substance on a hot, metal surface, then inhale the resulting puff of smoke, according to SF Weekly.

The high is nothing like regular marijuana: It’s not uncommon for people to lose consciousness after inhaling BHO. “Things like this never happened until the popularization of hash oil in recent years,” Dale Gieringer of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group, told SF Weekly. “The dangers are dire enough to merit a special warning.”

Molly

The active ingredient in the popular club drug Ecstasy is MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine), and Molly is generally considered the most-refined, crystalline form of MDMA. A potent hallucinogen, Molly has been blamed for drug overdoses that killed four people this year, the New York Daily News reports.

One problem is the questionable purity of any synthetic drug, according to experts. “It’s exactly the same phenomenon that occurred with Ecstasy a decade ago,” Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine, told the Daily News. “Ecstasy had terrible reliability, and it’s the same with Molly. Though it’s being marketed as pure MDMA, it’s a hoax.”

Suboxone

Buprenorphine, marketed as Suboxone, is an opiate painkiller that’s often used to wean addicts off of more powerful opiates like heroin and hydrocodone. Substance abuse experts praise its success at treating addictions, and about 3 million Americans have used it for this purpose, according to the National Pain Report.

But a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that the number of emergency room visits involving Suboxone had increased by a factor of 10 from 2005 to 2010. More than half of these visits were for recreational use of the drug. “The buprenorphine, these visits may have been misused or abused, either for psychoactive effects or in an attempt to self-treat for opioid dependence,” according to the SAMHSA report.

Source: livescience.com

    More than one in 10 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) were at some point receiving what doctors deemed to be futile care, in a new study.

In those cases, critical care doctors believed people would never survive outside an ICU or that the burdens of their care “grossly outweighed” any benefits. And, researchers found, treating each of those patients cost about $4,000 every day.

“Many physicians find that the provision of futile care is not only contradictory to their professional responsibility, but harmful to patients,” Dr. Neil Wenger, director of the UCLA Healthcare Ethics Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine, and senior author of the study, said.

“The biggest issue, more important than the cost issue, is the use of highly advanced medical care that was designed to rescue people that instead gets used to prolong the dying process,” such as ventilators and medicines that raise blood pressure, he told Reuters Health.

For their study, Wenger and his colleagues first convened a group of 13 doctors who worked in critical care to agree on a definition of futile treatment. Categories included care for patients who were permanently unconscious or for whom death was imminent, or treatment that could not achieve the patient’s goals.

Then, the researchers surveyed the attending critical care specialist in five ICUs every day for three months about each of that doctor’s patients to find out how many were receiving futile care under the focus group’s definition.

During the study period, 36 doctors assessed 1,136 patients, with an average of six assessments per patient. Of those patients, 123 – or 11 percent – were determined to be receiving futile treatment, and another 98 (8.6 percent) were perceived as receiving probably futile treatment.

Eighty-four of those receiving futile care died before discharge, and another 20 died within six months of their ICU stay, the researchers reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. The rest were left in “severely compromised” states, with many kept alive by machines.

Wenger and his team calculated hospital costs for futile care were about $4,000 per day, adding up to $2.6 million of treatment provided unnecessarily.

Dr. Michael Niederman, chair of the department of medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, said how often futile care is provided is likely to vary between ICUs.

“It’s very difficult to come up with a definition of futile care,” he told Reuters Health.

“I think there are many things we do where over time we realize we’re unable to help the patient.”

Niederman, who has studied futile care but wasn’t involved in the new research, said along with the costs of providing intensive care that is unlikely to help, there may be times when such treatment hurts other patients as well.

For example, many very sick patients in the ICU are on antibiotics, even if they don’t currently have an infection. One study he cited showed one quarter of them developed multi-drug resistant bacteria – which could then be spread to other patients on the unit.

Of course, the researchers said, doctors are not making treatment decisions on their own, and families may have different opinions on what constitutes futile care, or when the benefits of treatment outweigh the burdens.

“Many times family members have a sense of guilt and responsibility to their loved ones that they want everything done, and I think many times they don’t understand what it means to do everything,” Niederman said.

“The implied discussion here is, do we have the resources in this country to give people care whenever they want it regardless of whether we think the care has benefit?” he said. “That’s a very difficult discussion.”

Wenger said for him, the study highlights the importance of having conversations with patients about their end-of-life care while they are still able to participate in those talks.

“It’s a very complex process making decisions for very ill patients who are on the brink of death,” he said.

“The main message is that early discussions and advance planning are absolutely critical.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/10/futile-treatment-common-in-icus-study-finds/#ixzz2eYs9jy00