The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has broadened its recommendation about giving docusate to patients as it continues to investigate a multistate outbreak of Burkholderia cepacia complex infections, which began in ventilated patients in the intensive care unit. To date, 47 B. cepacia complex cases have been confirmed to match one of two outbreak strains identified from […]
Read MoreTwenty minutes may be all it takes to identify a case of acetaminophen (APAP) poisoning, according to the developers of a new test for the condition that, they say, could streamline treatment for patients with liver failure related to the drug. In a recent study, the 20-minute test (AcetaSTAT, Acetaminophen Toxicity Diagnostics) was performed as […]
Read MoreNeurologists, even those with a practice focus or fellowship in multiple sclerosis (MS), were not able in some cases to differentiate between MS and other common disorders, such as migraine and fibromyalgia, a new study suggests. Andrew Solomon, MD, and colleagues from the University of Vermont, Burlington, solicited and collected data from four academic centers, […]
Read MoreAmid heightened efforts to try to prevent pain and surgical patients from developing long-term opioid use or misuse, one research team has come up with a handy alternative to time-consuming screening tools for identifying patients at risk, while other researchers report on key risk factors linked to long-term use. In the first of the studies […]
Read MoreHospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)—which account for 20% to 25% of hospital-acquired infections—should be treated with shorter courses of antibiotics, according to new guidelines released by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and American Thoracic Society (Clin Infect Dis 2016 Jul 13. The new guidelines recommend seven days or less of antibiotics for most […]
Read MoreDrug-resistant ‘superbug’ could make antibiotics useless A drug-resistant “superbug” that doctors have been dreading has shown up in the U.S. for the first time, researchers reported Thursday. The bacteria has genetic changes that make it resistant to a last-ditch antibiotic called colistin and while it had been seen in Europe and China, no one in […]
Read MoreWith evidence on the detrimental effects of catastrophizing on chronic pain well documented and ever increasing, researchers are making headway in refining the tools needed to measure the highly subjective symptom. The current gold standard in measuring catastrophizing, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), a validated 13-item instrument, considers factors including rumination, helplessness, and magnification, but […]
Read MoreAre low-dose ketamine infusions for analgesia safe for patients who are not in a setting with continuous monitoring? The answer is yes, according to a small retrospective study. Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey M. Carness, MD, and his colleagues at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, in Virginia, have long recognized the efficacy of ketamine in subanesthetic doses […]
Read MoreAmong inpatients aged 45 years or older having noncardiac surgery, 9% will experience myocardial injury within the 30 days after the procedure. About 80% of these injuries are clinically silent, detected only by troponin elevation. Mortality, however, is nearly identical for symptomatic and asymptomatic troponin elevations. Within 30 days of surgery, 10% of patients with […]
Read MorePatients receiving liposomal bupivacaine (Exparel, Pacira) injection after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) spent less time in the hospital and were significantly less likely to need to go to a rehabilitation center after discharge, a recent study found. Patients given liposomal bupivacaine spent a half-day less in the hospital than those administered routine, opioid-based pain medications, […]
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