Anesthesiology Blogs This is an OPML file. It can be used to export all the MedWorm RSS feeds on this topic into your personal RSS reader (usually you have to save this file to your own computer before clicking on an Import OPML command in your own feed reader to upload the file which will then import all the feeds) or it can be used by webmasters to integrate MedWorm feeds with their own website. This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader, such as GoogleReader, or to display this data on your own website or blog. Subscribe to this data using MyMedWorm.Subscribe to this data using GoogleReader.Subscribe to this data using Bloglines.Subscribe to this data using MyYahoo.

This page shows you the most recent publications within this specialty of the MedWorm directory. This is page number 25.

Supergirl #55: A Medical Review
Supergirl #55 “Fakeouts” Sterling Gates, writer Jamal Igle, penciller A strong effort here by Gates and Igle. After Gangbuster gets his hand crushed by Bizarro Supergirl, the real Supergirl uses her x-ray vision to (correctly) the injury suffered. “She broke two of your metacarpals” The metacarpals are the main bones of the palm; there is one for each finger, including the thumb. In this case, Gangbuster has suffered closed1 transverse2 comminuted3 fractures of the second and third metacarpal shafts. We can see that the bones are out of place (”displaced“), but since we’re only g...
Source: Polite Dissent - September 15, 2010 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Scott Tags: newtag Source Type: blogs

Gettin' to the comment-section questions....
First, a couple of nursing-related queries:Katie asked, "Is it possible to be a good nurse-manager? If so, HOW?"Yes. Yes, it is.As to how to do it, I think--and keep in mind here that I'm totally talking out of my hat, because I've never been a nurse manager--you'd need to keep three things in mind: fairness, free flow of information, and what the nurses you're working with go through.Fairness is a far-reaching concept. Every unit is going to have little niggling things, like the person who only works twice a week and yet wants to be first-cancelled *every time they work*, that are going to drive people on the unit crazy. ...
Source: Head Nurse - September 14, 2010 Category: Nurses Authors: Jo Source Type: blogs

Local Wound Care for Malignant and Palliative Wounds – an Article Review
Wounds in palliative care patients may be related to their underlying malignancy or to skin breakdown (poor nutrition, advanced age, poor perfusion, etc). Wounds and associated skin changes that develop in palliative patients are generally considered as nonhealable. Therefore, the goal is refocused in an attempt to reduce emotional distress to patients and their families as well as reduction of local physical wound issues. The article defines these issues using the mnemonic HOPES: Hemorrhage, Odor, Pain, Exudate, and Superficial infection. The article reminds us that malignant wou...
Source: Suture for a Living - September 13, 2010 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: wounds pallitive care article review Source Type: blogs

Teleanesthesia With Remote Anesthesiologists
In the comments of my recent post Anesthesiologists Demand To Outrun Supply? a number of medical doctors, including several anesthesiologists, took strong exception to the possibility of automating anesthesiology. Well, researchers at McGill University in Canada and Pisa University in Italy have recently used videoconferencing to allow anesthesiologists to control drug delivery remotely thru an automated system. Videoconferences may be known for putting people to sleep, but never like this. Dr. Thomas Hemmerling and his team of McGill's Department of Anesthesia achieved a world first on August 30, 2010, when they treated p...
Source: FuturePundit - September 12, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Medical Surgery Automation Source Type: blogs

How to Alleviate Your Patient’s Fear
The following is a guest post by Hannah Daniel of Careington/QBI. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here. How to Alleviate a Patient’s Fear While some may find it empowering to strike fear into the hearts of people they have never even met, most dentists wish people would understand that their office is nothing to be afraid of. New technology, higher standards and greater oral health awareness have put us far ahead of dentistry’s dark past. Even so, an estimated 15 percent of Americans experience some sort of dental fear or phobia, according to the Columbia University College ...
Source: Dental Heroes - September 12, 2010 Category: Dentists Authors: Hannah Daniel Tags: Tips Source Type: blogs

On Grapefruit and Lemons
Despite its tart reputation, grapefruit may indeed be the sweetest of all (metaphorically speaking):"New joint research by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard University’s Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has demonstrated the mechanism by which a single compound in grapefruit controls fat and glucose metabolism ... causing the liver to break down fatty acids. In fact, the compound seems to mimic the actions of other drugs, such as the lipid-lowering fenofibrate and the anti-diabetic rosiglitazone."In short, a team of American and Israeli scientists my have found a naturally-occurring treatmen...
Source: InsureBlog - September 12, 2010 Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs

Advanced Physiology - what do I need to do differently?
by BuddhaGuy (Posted Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:16 pm)I'm a CRNA (nurse anesthesia) student taking a first year med school advanced physiology course. Just had our first exam today, and I got a whopping 48% on it. It's the first test of any kind I've ever failed in my life, and I did it up right. I'm not really sure what I did or didn't do to get there. I have a 3.78 undergrad GPA, and an AAS before that with a 3.94 (in veterinary medicine). I understand that graduate level study is a different animal, but it's not *that* different. Are study habits and methods that worked extremely well for me as an undergrad supposed to be simp...
Source: Med Student Guide - September 10, 2010 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Immigrant Children Undergo Surgery, Without Parents' Permission --1906
Over at The HealthCare Blog (THCB), Michael Millenson, president of Health Quality Advisors and author of the critically acclaimed Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age, offers a fabulous account of the “Tonsillectomy Riots” You will find it here: http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2010/09/remembering-the-tonsillectomy-riots.html Millenson found the story on Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish news and culture, which, he writes, had rescued the tale “from historical obscurity. Piecing together old newspaper accounts in English and Yiddish, the...
Source: Health Beat - September 9, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Maggie Mahar Source Type: blogs

Immigrant Children Undergo Surgey, Without Parents' Permission --1906
Over at The HealthCare Blog (THCB), Michael Millenson, president of Health Quality Advisors and author of the critically acclaimed Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age, offers a fabulous account of the “Tonsillectomy Riots” You will find it here: http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2010/09/remembering-the-tonsillectomy-riots.html Millenson found the story on Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish news and culture, which, he writes, had rescued the tale “from historical obscurity. Piecing together old newspaper accounts in English and Yiddish, the...
Source: Health Beat - September 9, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Maggie Mahar Source Type: blogs

Radiologist vs ER Extranormal Medical Video
Here's a funny look at an academic hospital setting for this Radiologist vs ER Xtranormal medical video (not a Happy original). I can tell you my experience out in the clinical world is the exact opposite. Radiology reporting is now automated. For those hospitals where the radiologists still talk, here is humorous look at Radiologist vs ER You can also catch up on these other fine Xtranormal medical videos Veterinarian vs MD Hospitalist vs Cardiologist (a Happy original) Hospitalist vs ER (a Happy original) Hospitalist vs Oncologist (a Happy original) Orthopaedics vs Anesthesia Patient Faking Seizure in ER
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - September 8, 2010 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: The Happy Hospitalist Source Type: blogs

After robotic surgery comes robotic anesthesiology
Courtesy of medgadget: Robotic surgery is nothing new, but after the surgeon has been pushed away from the OR table, you are still left with the gasman. In one of the first efforts to make teleanesthesia a reality (apart from several telemonitoring efforts), researchers from the University of Florida demonstrate the possibility of a robotically assisted simulated nerve block placement under ultrasound guidance in this month's issue ofAnesthesia & Analgesia. They used the well known da Vinci surgical robot to perform the procedure. The ultrasound head still had to be manually positioned and the subject was only a phant...
Source: Digital Pathology Blog - September 7, 2010 Category: Pathologists Authors: Kaps Source Type: blogs

Anachronistic Specialties?
The NY Times has jumped all over a couple of recent scientific articles asserting that certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA's) provide equivalent care as MD anesthesiologists. Already, it is legal in 15 states for CRNA's to dispense anesthesia without the overarching supervision of a physician. Furthermore, a study from the Lewin Group in California has demonstrated that CRNA-only models of anesthesia provision are far more cost effective that our current dual profession paradigm.In the long run, there also could be savings to the health care system if nurses delivered more of the care. It costs more than six time...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 7, 2010 Category: Surgeons Source Type: blogs

Expansion of Practice-Nurses can teach us a few things
While our profession continues to go down a path that restricts and contracts our own scope of practice, you have to admire the way nurses go about their business-and they put their money where their mouth is by appropriately funding research that demonstrates their outcomes are as effective as specialist physician counterparts. This NY Times article gives the backdrop to 2 studies related to nurse anesthetics which essentially concluded that there is no significant difference in the quality of care when delivered by a CRNA or by an anesthesiologist. In an environment where healthcare is attempting to lower costs, a po...
Source: MyPhysicalTherapySpace.com - September 7, 2010 Category: Physical Therapists Authors: Larry Benz Tags: Healtcare Quality Legislative Source Type: blogs

Non-Profits And Industry Money: Who Gets What
Last December, the Senate Finance Committee’s Chuck Grassley sent letters 33 medical advocay groups, including the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and American Academy of Family Physicians for details about the money they and their board members received from drug and device makers (background here). The move came several months after Grassley and his staffers discovered that the National Alliance on Mental Illness received sizeable pharma donations while also conducting lobbying efforts with drug makers and pushing legislation that benefits these companies. Since...
Source: Pharmalot - September 7, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized American Academy of Family Physicians American Cancer Society American Dental Association American Heart Association American Medical Association American Society of Anesthesiologists Chuck Grassley NAMI National Alliance o Source Type: blogs

Another Poke in the Eye
A 57 year-old man presents to the emergency department after being accidentally poked in his left eye by his grandson. He complains of sharp pain on the surface of his eye and photophobia. He refuses to open his eyelids until you instill a few drops of topical anesthesia. Can you help him?
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - September 7, 2010 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Source Type: blogs

a close shave?
some versions of history claim that surgeons and barbers stem from a common pool. that is apparently the reason the british still refer to their surgeons as mister rather than doctor. i personally even used to believe this, but then something interesting happened which changed my mind forever.sometimes a theater list can fall apart. sometimes some patients just neglect to turn up, sometimes anaesthetists cancel patients and sometimes the blood results preclude theater as an option. it is seldom that the powers that be conspire together for a total collapse of the list but it did once happen. when we got to theater we disco...
Source: other things amanzi - September 6, 2010 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs

There’s Nothing More Important Than Your Health
I don’t do well with pain. I learned that lesson all too well during the birth of my first son when, after 10 hours of labor jump-started by a pitocin drip, I finally got an epidural. Nothing — and I mean nothing – has ever felt as good as the ebbing of that pain. I relearned the lesson during the birth of the second son, this time determined to go natural all the way when, after a few hours, I told the doula to “shut up” and ordered my husband to hunt down the anesthesiologist and “Get me an epidural — NOW!” He listens well. By the time the third son was born, I had the dri...
Source: Better Health - September 6, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Debra Gordon Tags: Better Health Network Health Tips Humor Opinion True Stories Aging Adults Aging and Your Health Aging Well Eating Right Feeling Ill General Medicine Getting Older Healthy Aging Otitis Externa Pain Tolerance Regular Exercise Source Type: blogs

Life in the Trenches of Health Insurance Business: How to Make Sure Your Surgery will be Covered
By Stephanie Cohen. This month’s health insurance issue: Linda is having surgery in the morning, but at 4 p.m. the afternoon before, she gets a call from her HMO requiring her to post a $400 advance deposit — or the surgery is off. What should she do? The situation: Our client Linda was scheduled to have surgery using a surgical group that had negotiated fees with her HMO carrier. Besides being told to post $400 in advance, she was told she needed to sign a form stating she would pay whatever fees the carrier would not pay to the doctor. This came despite the fact that the surgeon was in her HMO network and Linda had g...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 6, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Access Advocacy Cost Coverage Policy Insurance Source Type: blogs

Another Poke in the Eye
A 57 year-old man presents to the emergency department after being accidentally poked in his left eye by his grandson. He complains of sharp pain on the surface of his eye and photophobia. He refuses to open his eyelids until you instill a few drops of topical anesthesia. Can you help him?
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - September 5, 2010 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Cardiology Emergency Medicine Featured Health eLearning corneal abrasion Eye injury Ophthalmology Trauma Source Type: blogs

Only in America!
Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - Americas: "Lacking enough of the anaesthetic essential to the cocktail of lethal drugs administered during executions, several US states are being forced to postpone the procedure until early next year. At the heart of the drug supply problem is Hospira, the only pharmaceutical company that produces the anaesthetic sodium thiopental. “We are working to get it back on the market and we anticipate we will by 2011,” Hospira spokesman said. The US Food and Drug Administration does not approve the drug’s use in lethal injections and Hospira does not sell it fo...
Source: PharmaGossip - September 5, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Source Type: blogs

Medical bias against addiction
I haven’t gone anywhere in case you’re wondering… but I recently started writing a blog on Psych Central, called ‘an epidemic of addiction.’ Please add it to your reading list! This is my favorite time of year and the time I am most likely going to be outdoors, so watch for posts to pick up a bit as things get colder outside. I’m probably in the wrong state of mind to be blogging, so consider this more along the line of venting. I had an encounter with a local physician a couple days ago that left me shaing my head– I have a solo practice so I have forgotten just how misg...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - September 4, 2010 Category: Addiction Authors: SuboxDoc Tags: Suboxone acute pain addiction buprenorphine other blogs surgery larger dose opioid surgery on Suboxone Source Type: blogs

Efforts to battle chronic pain found lacking - The Globe and Mail
Chronic pain is a disease in itself and proper treatment a human right, doctor saysSome 80 per cent of people around the world who suffer from chronic pain can't get the treatment they need and governments must step up their efforts to tackle the issue, says Michael Cousins, an Australian anesthetist and the driving force behind the first International Pain Summit.Fixing the problem would entail changing the curriculum in medical schools, co-ordinating between physicians to better treat chronic conditions and getting the word out to pain sufferers that there are alternatives to drugs, Dr. Cousins said.Earlier thi...
Source: Psychology of Pain - September 3, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs

The Laryngospams "Waking Up Is Hard To Do": Good Singing Medical Humor
The singing anesthesiologists over The Laryngospasms bring us "Waking Up is Hard To Do". Now that's, singing from the heart
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - September 3, 2010 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: The Happy Hospitalist Source Type: blogs

Alzheimer’s And Oral Hygiene
By Barbara Pursley Alzheimer's Reading Room Maintaining good oral hygiene was most important to Mom. Daily preventative care included proper brushing and flossing at least twice a day. I can remember her saying, “If you don’t take care of your teeth then you won’t feel like smiling.” In the early stages of Mom’s disease, brushing her teeth with an electric tooth brush was not that difficult, but I can’t count the number of times that she bit my fingers when trying to floss. And, I learned early on that I definitely couldn’t depend on the nursing home for this duty. Every year, I took Mom to the dentist...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - September 2, 2010 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs

New e-books
The orthodontic treatment of impacted teeth / Adrian Becker. 2nd ed., Abingdon, Oxon : Informa Healthcare, 2007.In the orthodontic/surgical treatment modality for impacted teeth, there is considerable difference of opinion and controversies within the two disciplines regarding what is good practice and what is bad. The text discusses all aspects of the problem. Oral microbiology at a glance / Richard J. Lamont (et al). Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. ; Ames, Iowa : Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.Covers oral microbial origins of health or disease, various infections ranging from dental caries, periodontal and endodontic infections ...
Source: DentistryLibrary@Sydney - September 2, 2010 Category: Dentists Tags: New books E-books Source Type: blogs

the master has spoken
i have touched on how to spin the story correctly to your consultant in order to achieve the best possible outcome for all involved. there was another scenario where i worked it to a fine art. the toughest firm to work in was the boss' firm. i have mentioned this before but it was difficult to avoid his wrath. generally you were placed in charge of his firm only as the most senior registrar in the department. this gave me a good few years to observe how the other guys presented their cases to him in the morning meeting and to learn from their mistakes. one thing about the boss is he was an exception to the general rule of ...
Source: other things amanzi - September 1, 2010 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs

WTF: Med School Students Perform Pelvic Exams on Unconscious Patients
photo: Thinkstock We assume that many of our lady readers have had surgery at some point in their adult lives. But did you know there’s a chance that a med student practiced doing a pelvic exam on you while you were under anesthesia? Apparently this is a completely acceptable practice in hospitals around the world, and doctors don’t see anything unethical about it. In fact, in the March 2003 issue of the American Journal of OB/GYN, the residency director of Johns Hopkins said, “I don’t think any of us even think about it. It’s just so standard as to how you train medical students.” But, ...
Source: Breastfeeding 1-2-3 - September 1, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Caroline Sloan Tags: LIVE ethics hospitals med students medical ethics medical school pelvic exams surgery Source Type: blogs

Health care reform controversy in both Europe and the United States
by Anesthesioboist T., MDOn my way onto the plane for my recent flight home from France I picked up a copy of Le Figaro thinking I might enjoy the article about actress Sophie Marceau, who was on the cover of everything while we were in France in celebration of her turning 40.I did enjoy catching up on Marceau – I still remembering watching La Boum in my high school French class – but I couldn’t help but notice a two-page spread showing a large group of physicians in their white coats standing on the staircase at the Université Paris Descartes – a staircase I remember descending last year after my ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 31, 2010 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Kevin Tags: Health policy and politics Health reform newtag Source Type: blogs

Nurse Anesthetists: Should They Work Without Supervision?
Allowing certified registered nurse anesthetists to work without the supervision of a doctor does not put patients at risk, according to a recent study that was published in Health Affairs, a monthly journal that also publishes peer-reviewed papers online weekly.The findings bring up for discussion state laws that require CRNAs to work under the supervision of an anesthesiologist or surgeon in
Source: NurseZone Blog: RN Talk - August 30, 2010 Category: Nurses Authors: E'Louise Ondash Source Type: blogs

Hallucinogens: Good For Your Mental Health?
Last week’s article in the journal Science looked at the effects of the anesthetic/dissociative drug ketamine (Vitamin K or “Special K” on the street) on brain cell function in rats, concluding that “ketamine might be useful in treating depression because it increases brain activity instantly — so there is no need to wait weeks or months for the drug to take effect.” Another article from the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience reviewed the state-of-the-art in psychedelic science and found that “countless studies show that hallucinogens promote healthy neural activity in the b...
Source: Better Health - August 30, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: DrStevenDaviss Tags: Better Health Network News Research Source Type: blogs

Marijuana effective in reducing pain, study shows - The Globe and Mail
This study] should provide some support to the fact that there is evidence now out there to support these claims."Henry McQuay, a professor at Balliol College at the University of Oxford, said the study adds to three previous investigations of smoked cannabis in coping with neuropathic pain, two of which involved patients with HIV. He noted, however, that the participant size of the study was small, the trial was short and it remains to be seen if marijuana can yield greater analgesia with fewer adverse effects than conventional drugs."The current trial adds to the trickle of evidence that cannabis may help some of the pat...
Source: Psychology of Pain - August 30, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs

One man's ceiling is another man's floor . . .
And your taxes are my income. Massachusetts has typically weathered recessions a bit better than many states because we have a bigger than average health care sector, which has just kept on growing through hell and high water. Not so much this time. On the one hand, I've been ranting and raving ever since I've been doing this blog thing (BTW this is my 2,007th post, I didn't even notice the 2,000th) that our medical industry is too large and much of it is waste. That's still true but that waste is also income for people -- medical underwriters need to eat. And those anesthesiologists making the 300K employ a lot of nannie...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 30, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs

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jugglingBefore you ask: yes, I changed my picture on the sidebar. I just couldn't handle how smugly superior I looked in the other picture, like I was gazing down from my throne on high. (Granted, this effect was probably amplified by the fact that Cal took the photo--Cal, who necessarily takes every portrait shot from below.) But every time I opened my own page, I felt like there I was, looking down my nose at my own self for wearing knock-off Keds in seventh grade or something. Remember when people used to color in little blue rectangles on the heels of their canvas sneakers, to make them look more like Keds? Yeah, me to...
Source: the underwear drawer - August 29, 2010 Category: Anesthetists Authors: Michelle Au Source Type: blogs

Average physician salaries according to the Bureau of Labor Services
What does the U.S. Bureau of Labor Services (BLS) report as the average salary of a physician? http://www.graduan2u.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/salary_jobs.jpg"In 2008, physicians practicing primary care had total median annual compensation of $186,044, and physicians practicing in medical specialties earned total median annual compensation of $339,738." Let's look at a few specific specialties, in ascending order: General Pediatricians $161,410 Psychiatrists $163,660 Family and General Practitioners $168,550 General Internists $183,990 Obstetricians and Gynecologists $204,470 Anesthesiologists $211,750 Surgeons $219,...
Source: Non-Clinical Physician Jobs, Careers, and Opportunities - August 29, 2010 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Dr. Joseph Kim Source Type: blogs

Cryospray Against Airway Tumors Leads to Unexpected Complications
Spray cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen has been used effectively for ablating esophageal tumors. Some facilities even perform the technique in an outpatient setting under sedation. However, spray cryotherapy for treating advanced airway lesions—when other treatment options are limited—is more recent, and few reports of its effectiveness have been published (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2010;139:781-782).To assess their efforts to date, thoracic anesthesiologists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City reviewed 24 spray cryotherapy procedures in 22 patients; all treatments involved airway-obstructing tumo...
Source: Medical Hemostat - August 29, 2010 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: hemostatguy at gmail.com (hemostat guy) Source Type: blogs

Ketamine for Depression: Yay or Neigh?
This article will be available, open-access, until September 23. For more information on this Blog Focus, see the Table of Contents.The secret history of psychedelic psychiatry is discussed over at Neurophilosophy. Neuroskeptic covers Serotonin, Psychedelics and Depression while Mind Hacks provides a personal look at yagé in Visions of a psychedelic future.Veterinary Anesthetic, Club Drug, or Antidepressant?Club drug "Special K" (aka ketamine) is stepping out of the laser light into the broad daylight of mainstream psychiatry with the publication of a new review article by Vollenweider and Kometer (2010). Long used to ane...
Source: The Neurocritic - August 29, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs

First Medical Marijuana, now Healthy Hallucinogens?
~from Lanny-Yap Last week's article in Science looked at the effects of the anesthetic/dissociative drug ketamine ("vitamin K" or "Special K" on the street) in brain cell function in rats, concluding "that ketamine might be useful in treating depression because it increases brain activity instantly - so there is no need to wait weeks or months for the drug to take effect." Another article from Nature Reviews Neuroscience reviewed the state of the art in psychedelic science and found that "countless studies show that hallucinogens promote healthy neural activity in the brain. The researchers also created a chart to show w...
Source: Shrink Rap - August 28, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Roy Source Type: blogs

Veterinarian vs MD Xtranormal Medical Video
This Veterinarian vs MD xtranormal medical video is some good old fashion homegrown medical humor. Hilarious stuff You can also catch up on these other fine Xtranormal medical videos Hospitalist vs Oncologist (a Happy original) Hospitalist vs Cardiologist (a Happy original) Hospitalist vs ER (a Happy original) Orthopaedics vs Anesthesia Patient Faking Seizure in ER
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - August 28, 2010 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: The Happy Hospitalist Source Type: blogs

Anesthesiologists Demand To Outrun Supply?
Will a 3% per year growth in demand for anesthesiologists in the United States outrun supply? A recent study from the RAND Corporation, one of the countrys most trusted analytic organizations, finds a current shortage of 3,800 anesthesiologists and 1,282 nurse anesthetists. However, if current trends continue, a dramatic shortage of anesthesiologists and a significant surplus of nurse anesthetists are projected by 2020. This brings up some questions that I do not have answers for. But the questions are pretty interesting and worth investigating: Is it necessary today to have 1 anesthesiologist per operation? Or could a s...
Source: FuturePundit - August 28, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Randall Parker Tags: Policy Medical Source Type: blogs

What to do about Treatment Resistant Depression?
About 60% of patients suffering from depression do not find any benefit from their first antidepressant. Up to 20% of patients find depression impossible to overcome even after 1 year. Assertive treatment of depression from the get go is essential to helping recover from depression. Psychiatrists don't have a shared definition of treatment resistant depression. However, most would agree that your depression may be treatment resistant if it has not resolved almost completely after adequate trials of at least 2 separate treatments. You, with your doctor and/or therapist, must then consider the following strategies to ...
Source: Depression Clinic of Chicago Blog - August 28, 2010 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs

Nursing as a second career?
This guest post is contributed by Maryanne Osberg. It’s official – our country needs more people to join the nursing community. We already have a shortage of nursing staff, and with the rise in the aging population, there is an increasing need for more people in the primary care sector. So if you’re considering becoming a nurse, now is the best possible time. You’re assured of a job on graduation, you have options to climb up the career ladder and become a nurse practitioner (some nurse practitioners are the only doctors that people in rural and underserved areas know and trust – they’re allowed to treat pati...
Source: Medicine and Technology by Dr. Joseph Kim - August 27, 2010 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Dr. Joseph Kim Source Type: blogs

waterworks
when i rotated through urology it was great! every day all the urologists would get together in their scope theater and pretty much chat while one of them did scopes. it was friendly and festive and extremely relaxed. and not surprisingly, they were a very close knit group. but after about a week i started getting bored. but the seed was planted. still these days when i am between cases i often pop into the urologist's scope theater to see what new instrument he has to seek and destroy kidney stones. i jokingly say i'm there to learn how to do urology and they jokingly say they are thinking of including me on their call ro...
Source: other things amanzi - August 26, 2010 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs

I can't believe it: Finally, a great banner ad
Is it possible that the advertising cognoscenti are emerging from their shellshocked post-paper-demise bunkers and smelling the Zeitgeist don't you dare sidetrack me by telling me that's a mixed metaphor oh no you don't I didn't just fall off the turnip truck though in fact once I did have the most delicious roast turnips I don't remember when or even what country or continent it was on but like I said I won't stand for your trying to get me off-topic no that's not the kind of thing I cotton to not when I'm giving major kudos to the ad company responsible for the ad up top not something you&...
Source: bookofjoe - August 25, 2010 Category: Anesthetists Authors: bookofjoe Source Type: blogs

Recently purchased e-books
The orthodontic treatment of impacted teeth / Adrian Becker. 2nd ed., Abingdon, Oxon : Informa Healthcare, 2007.In the orthodontic/surgical treatment modality for impacted teeth, there is considerable difference of opinion and controversies within the two disciplines regarding what is good practice and what is bad. The text discusses all aspects of the problem. Oral microbiology at a glance / Richard J. Lamont (et al). Chichester, West Sussex, U.K. ; Ames, Iowa : Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.Covers oral microbial origins of health or disease, various infections ranging from dental caries, periodontal and endodontic infections ...
Source: DentistryLibrary@Sydney - August 25, 2010 Category: Dentists Tags: New books E-books Source Type: blogs

Oh yeah, my time of strife and woe . . .
I know I'm supposed to tell the rest of this story so I'll get on with it. When you have your intestines cut apart, they shut down for a while. The anesthesia and the morphine also contribute, so getting off the morphine is helpful, but it still takes at least three of four days for things to get going again. That's why I had the nasogastric tube sucking my stomach dry all the time, and that's why I couldn't eat or drink anything. Hence the IV hydration. You don't want the stomach trying to send anything on for further processing and causing a backup. The way you can tell the guts are starting to operate again is pretty si...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 25, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs

Rerun: What causes ADHD? Some intriguing findings
The Health Business Blog is on summer vacation until Labor Day, and will be re-running some classic posts from now till then. This item originally ran on January 11, 2008 and has had perhaps more profound impact on certain individuals than any other post I’ve run. Read the comments section of the original post and you’ll see what I mean. A short paper in the current issue of the Journal of Child Neurology (Hypokalemic Sensory Overstimulation) raises some tantalizing possibilities: In some patients, ADHD may be caused by an excess of sensory stimulation arriving at the brain, rather than being a disorder of the...
Source: Health Business Blog - August 24, 2010 Category: Health Managers Authors: David E. Williams of the Health business blog Tags: Research Source Type: blogs

Hospitalist vs Oncologist Xtranormal Medical Video Production
My Xtranormal hospitalist vs other specialty medical video production moves on to battle with the oncologists. You can also catch up on these other fine Xtranormal medical videos Hospitalist vs Cardiologist Hospitalist vs ER Orthopaedics vs Anesthesia Patient Faking Seizure in ER
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - August 23, 2010 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: The Happy Hospitalist Source Type: blogs

Origin of the Word “Anesthesia”
The term “anesthesia” was coined in 1846 by physician and noted poet Oliver Wendall Holmes, Sr. in a letter to William G. Morton, the dentist who is credited with the first written description of the use of ether in a medical procedure to relieve pain. Immodestly predicting that his new term would be spoken by every civilization countless times, Holmes chose the prefix “an” meaning without and root “aesthesia” which roughly means feeling. Holmes is also credited with coining the term “Boston Brahmin,” of which he was one.
Source: Inside Surgery - August 23, 2010 Category: Surgeons Authors: Editor Tags: Medical Trivia anesthesia boston brahmin Oliver Wendall Holmes Source Type: blogs