Imagine entering the intensive care unit with one illness like pneumonia – and then leaving with an entirely different debilitating health condition affecting your memory, organizational skills and overall quality of life

It turns out that long-term brain dysfunction is a reality that many patients must face after a stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), according to a new study  from Vanderbilt University Medical Center published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  

“As survival has increased from critical illness based on modern medical therapies, we see a lot of patients coming back with memory problems, problems doing day-to-day activities,” study author Dr. Pratik Pandharipande, a professor of anesthesiology and critical care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told FoxNews.com. “Patients are telling us just getting us thorough the ICU and being a survivor is not good enough. They say, ‘We want to be back to where we were before we were in the ICU.’”

In an effort to improve quality of life for ICU patients post-treatment, Pandharipande and his team set out to discover what was happening in the ICU that was causing patients to experience such high rates of debilitating cognitive impairment.

Researchers analyzed 821 patients who had been admitted to the ICU with respiratory failure, cardiogenic shock or sepsis. Overall, they discovered that three months after leaving the ICU, 26 percent of patients had cognitive impairment symptoms similar to those seen in early Alzheimer’s disease, and 40 percent of patients had levels of cognitive impairment comparable to those seen in concussion victims.

Additionally, these effects were still visible months later. A year after their initial hospital stay, 24 percent of the patients still demonstrated levels of cognitive impairment similar to Alzheimer’s disease and 34 percent were still experiencing concussion-like levels of impairment.

“Even patients below 50 years of age had significant cognitive impairment,” Pandharipande said. “Another significant finding was whether you had prior disease or not, you still had this risk.”

In seeking an explanation, Pandharipande and his colleagues focused on delirium – a condition commonly seen in the ICU and characterized by brain dysfunction leading to confusion, fluctuating mental status or decreased levels of consciousness.

“There are early studies looking at what delirium does to the brain, and what people have found is that patients who have longer durations of delirium have more brain atrophy, more inflammation…and this could potentially be the connection between delirium and long term cognitive impairment,” Pandharipande said.

The researcher’s suspicions proved correct. They ultimately discovered that the longer patients experienced symptoms of delirium in the ICU, the worse their cognitive impairment after their stay.

“A number of studies have shown in recent years that delirium is not an innocent bystander of ICU care but is a real issue associated with worse outcomes, longer time in the ICU, on ventilation, even a predictor of mortality,” Pandharipande  said. “And now, if you survive, it’s a predictor of cognitive impairment.”

Pandharipande and his colleagues are now exploring methods to reduce the duration of delirium in ICU patients.

“A couple of things that have already been studied and have an impact are reducing sedative exposure…and having patients alert and getting them mobilized faster out of ICU beds,” Pandharipande said. “Sitting, walking – all have been shown to reduce duration of delirium.”

The team hopes their research will also encourage physicians to offer patients cognitive rehabilitation in addition to the physical rehabilitation that is typically prescribed after a serious illness.

“We hope to bring awareness to this problem so…when patients start complaining early in recovery period, it’s not blown off, but people actually try to get them involved in therapy programs,” Pandharipande said.

Source: http://www.allvoices.com

A 33-year-old man in US has undergone a ‘miraculous’ medical procedure to grow back his index finger which was chomped down by an overzealous horse while he was feeding the animal.

Paul Halpern from Florida managed to save the severed digit and take it to the hospital, but doctors told him there was nothing they could do. Halpern then visited Dr Eugenio Rodriguez, a Deerfield Beach general surgeon who used an innovative procedure called xenograft implantation to regenerate the finger. Xenograft refers to transplantation of cells from one species to another.

Rodriguez created a scaffold of Halpern’s missing finger, using tissue from a pig bladder, and attached it to the severed portion. The finger grew into the mold, generating new bone and soft tissue and a new fingernail.

According to CBS Miami, Halpern had to apply pulverised pig bladder tissue to his wounded finger each day and cover it with a protective saline sheet. Rodriguez said the powder stimulates stem cells in the finger to regenerate, which causes the growth.

Source: Timesofindia.com

Pregnant women are encouraged to stay fit and active during pregnancy to help reduce the risk to themselves and their unborn children. But 35-year-old weightlifter, Lea-Ann Ellison, has sparked a huge online debate after sharing photographs of her lifting heavy weights just two weeks before giving birth.

The Los Angeles mom-to-be can be seen hoisting kettle balls and barbells above her head. With the photos, she gave the statement, “I strongly believe that pregnancy is not an illness, but a time to relish in your body’s capabilities to kick .”

Within just hours of the CrossFit regime follower’s post, more than 500 shares had taken place. Within less than five days, nearly 17,000 shares had been counted. That has resulted in some vehemently opposed comments regarding her fitness routine, which is described as a ‘strength and conditioning program [adopted by many organizations, including] military special operations units, champion martial artists and professional athletes worldwide.’

User Amanda Cinq-Mars wrote: “This is actually sickening. I hope pregnant women around the world do not do this kind of crap…I am a crossfit enthusiast but I DO NOT recommend this at all. Doctors always strongly suggest to not lift heavy because you can sever your placenta and cause major damage and  early labor and miscarriage…Posting this picture [gives] people the wrong message that it is OKAY when it’s not!!!”

Another user, Stephanie Herrera wrote: “Sure you look and sound cool, but we’re only human…why would you risk hurting your baby just to stay in shape? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s not time to kick. It’s time to be protective of your unborn child.”

But not everyone has lashed out at the expectant Lea-Ann. In fact, she’s had some pretty strong supporters on her Facebook page.

Source: http://www.growingyourbaby.com/2013/09/20/pregnant-mom-sparks-online-debate-shares-photographs-weightlifting-just-weeks-due-date/

YouTube star Charles Trippy video logged his own brain surgery, according to The Jacksonville Observer.

Trippy, of Tampa, Fla., holds The Guinness World Record for the most number of days consecutively uploading video logs (vlogs) to YouTube. He currently has over 978,000 subscribers.

After fainting and suffering from a seizure in February 2012, Trippy was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was removed shortly thereafter.

However, after the procedure Trippy continued to suffer from seizures. During a follow-up appointment, doctors discovered a small piece of tumor remained in his brain, The Jacksonville Observer reported.

On September 17, Trippy went in for a second brain surgery to remove the remaining tumor. Trippy, who remained awake during the procedure, got permission from doctors to vlog the surgery and post it to YouTube.

“Hi honey – I love you. Everything’s going great,” Trippy said on his vlog, during surgery. “My brain is open and you can see the TV remote isn’t there like we thought.”

Source: nypost.com

It was supposed to be a normal play day for five friends splashing in a pool in the back yard.

It ended with the group of girls in horrific pain and eventually intensive care in hospital after they all suffered second-degree burns.

The five had spent the day in the pool, splashing around and having fun, The Hanford Sentinel reports. What at first seemed to be overexposure to the sun blossomed into softball-sized blisters and second-degree burns.

Stephanie Ellwanger’s girls, Jewels, 12, and Jazmyn, 9, wound up spending several days in an intensive care unit, hooked up to morphine to manage the pain. They stayed in hospital two weeks. Now they’re not allowed out in the sun for at least six months.

But what caused the Ellwanger girls and their three friends – Reyghan, Candy and Bailey – to end up with massive blisters and peeling skin was a mystery.

Doctors were stumped.

Ellwanger, of Hanford, California, later remembered that the girls played with limes from a neighbour’s tree, squeezing the fruits and splashing in the juice.

After a Google search and some time trying to convince dubious medical staff, the girls were diagnosed with phytophotodermatitis, described as “a chemical reaction [to the lime juice] that makes bare skin hypersensitive to ultraviolet light.”

It’s caused by contact with photosensitizing compounds which occur naturally in some fruits and vegetables — like limes.
Read more: Fox news