I thought this was interesting so I wanted to share it with our followers. As health insurers file their proposed 2015 rates for Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, expected health insurance premium increases have become the focus of various studies and news reports. In order to find out what drives premium rates, […]
Read MoreAuthors: Rice ASC et al., Lancet 2014 May 10; 383:1637 This is for our readers that treat pain patients. A phase 2 trial demonstrates the potential of angiotensin II type 2 antagonists, a new treatment target, to relieve the chronic neuropathic pain of postherpetic neuralgia. Because existing treatments for postherpetic neuralgia are often insufficient or […]
Read MoreAfter five years of slow employer healthcare spending growth, experts predict medical inflation across the U.S. will rise to 6.8 percent in 2015, according to areport from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers” shows a growing demand for healthcare will boost spending growth, although not as high as in the 1990s and 2000s–however, […]
Read MoreAuthors: Carreon L, et al Published in Journal of Neurosurgery, Spine 1-6 (Jun 2014) Object The Neck Disability Index (NDI) and numeric rating scales (0 to 10) for neck pain and arm pain are widely used cervical spine disease-specific measures. Recent studies have shown that there is a strong relationship between the SF-6D and the […]
Read MoreAuthors: Cottron N et al Published in Anesthesia & Analgesia (May 2014) BACKGROUND: Preoperative flushing of an anesthesia workstation is an alternative for preparation of the anesthesia workstation before use in malignant hyperthermia-susceptible patients (MHS). We studied in vitro, using a test lung, the washout profile of sevoflurane in 7 recent workstations during adult and, […]
Read MoreAuthors: Lee C, et al STUDY DESIGN A case report. OBJECTIVE We report a case of needle-tract seeding (NTS) of adenocarcinoma of the lung in the thoracic spine that manifested after vertebroplasty (VP). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA NTS after a biopsy is sometimes observed. However, NTS after an injection, as in VP, is a very […]
Read MoreAuthors: Lad S et al Published in Spine 39 (12), E719-27 (May 2014) STUDY DESIGN Retrospective analysis of a population-based insurance claims data set. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the use of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and lumbar reoperation for the treatment of failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS), and examine their associated complications and health care costs. […]
Read MoreCommunity opioid overdose prevention programs (OOPPs) — including the use of naloxone (Narcan) for rapid drug reversal — can improve bystander responses to overdose of heroin and related drugs, according to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine. There is growing interest in OOPPs to fight the rising number […]
Read MorePublished in Anesthesiology. 2014 May Authors: Constant AL et al BACKGROUND: Few outcome data are available about intraoperative cardiac arrest (IOCA). The authors studied 90-day functional outcomes and their determinants in patients admitted to the intensive care unit after IOCA. METHODS: Patients admitted to 11 intensive care units in a period of 2000-2013 were studied […]
Read MoreAuthors: Zhou P et al BACKGROUND: Postoperative shivering is a frequent complication of surgery in developing countries and there is no satisfying method to treat it, let alone to cure it. We studied whether intravenous amino acid (AA) infusion can cure postoperative shivering in the postanesthesia care unit. METHODS: Sixty postanesthesia care unit patients with […]
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