Most patients who experience a nonfatal prescription opioid overdose continue to receive opioids afterward, increasing their risk for a second overdose, finds a retrospective study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Using data from a U.S. health insurer, researchers studied some 2800 adults who survived a first opioid overdose during long-term opioid therapy for noncancer pain. […]
Read MoreAn online calculator that assesses patient-specific risk and guides surgical decision making changes the perceptions that surgeons have about operative risk, but not their decisions to recommend surgery, according to a randomized controlled trial. The surgical risk calculator developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), has a “high degree […]
Read MoreWhen compared with usual care, treatment of recent-onset low back pain (LBP) with early physical therapy resulted in a statistically significant improvement in disability, but the benefit was not clinically significant, according to results from a randomized clinical trial published in the October 13 issue of JAMA. Julie M. Fritz, PhD, PT, from the University of […]
Read MoreThe use of imaging for uncomplicated headache and cardiac stress imaging for low-risk patients has declined significantly during the last few years with the implementation of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign. Launched in 2012, Choosing Wisely was designed to make physicians aware of commonly overused medical procedures by publishing lists […]
Read MoreTransfusion 2015 Oct 7. doi: 10.1111/trf.13366. Authors: Eichel Y et al BACKGROUND: Mutations of nonmuscle myosin heavy chain 9 (MYH9) gene are an autosomal dominant cause of inherited thrombocytopenia in children. MYH9 spectrum disorders include May-Hegglin anomaly and Sebastian, Fechtner, and Epstein syndromes. Patients with these disorders often present with macroplatelets and thrombocytopenia and have a mild […]
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