Back on Track
Treatments for scoliosis help adolescents at a tender time A diagnosis of scoliosis can throw a child a curveball. Typically, at age 10 to 15 — just as kids embark on the sensitive years of adolescence — they might notice that one hip appears higher than the other. Or their shoulders or waist might look […]
Mayo Clinic Q&A: Full Recovery After Surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Can Take up to a Year
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Three months ago, I had surgery on my left wrist to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. Since then, I am in much more pain than before surgery, and two of my fingers are completely numb. I cannot even button a button, and tying my shoes is a chore. What would cause the pain […]
Surgeons Are Doing Fewer Knee Surgeries
When knee arthroscopy became widely available in the 1980s, it represented a major advance. Today orthopedists evaluating and treating common knee problems often recommend arthroscopy, during which they insert an instrument into the joint and, with a light and camera on its tip, directly inspect the knee from the inside. While there, he or she […]
Robots in the O.R.
Better operations through the use of intelligent machines The future of surgery is here, and it’s in the hands of robots. Well, sort of. The first robotic surgery system, the da Vinci robot, produced by Intuitive Surgical, was approved by the FDA in 2000. The robot, now in its fourth generation, has become a mainstay […]
The Science of Addiction
Drugs, the brain and how to fix the cycle of substance abuse Taylor was a 14-year-old high school freshman when she unwittingly used OxyContin for the first time. The South Florida teen, who asked that her last name not be used for privacy, had been having menstrual cramps in math class when another student offered […]
A Nation in Crisis
Understanding the U.S. obesity epidemic In October 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its updated statistics on obesity in the United States. The numbers were troubling and confirmed what many have been seeing and predicting for decades: obesity is skyrocketing. Like a train that has run off track, we seem to be […]
Music in the O.R.
While you’re lying sedated on the operating room table, your surgeon may be rocking out. Music is played in the operating theater 62 to 72 percent of the time, according to a study in medical journal The BMJ. “Around 80 percent of theater staff report that music benefits communication between team members, reducing anxiety levels […]
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Less cutting of tendons and ligaments can lead to quicker recovery Michael Floodstrand had always led an active lifestyle. He played hockey and baseball as a kid, and he continued to work out regularly and play golf as an adult. By the time he reached his 50s, however, his hips were beginning to complain. After […]
Up for Grabs
An adventure through the evolving science of organ transplantation By David Himmel It is late morning in early May 2014. Ozzie Rivero’s pager buzzes. The message reads: “heart offer.” Rivero takes action. Within the next 24 hours, he will be part of a harried effort to retrieve a still-beating heart from a deceased donor’s body […]
From Routine Surgery to Family Nightmare
By Anthony Bonazzo In June 2012, my sister, Jennifer, called me from New Jersey. She told me not to worry but that my father, John, was going to the ER. He was nauseated and short of breath. Later, after being admitted to the hospital, we learned that he had had a minor heart attack. The […]
Noninvasive Procedure Alternative to Knee Replacement Surgery
By Karen Schwartz Batavia resident and longtime osteoarthritis sufferer Barbara Ford was only 50 years old, yet she experienced knee pain so severe she had to walk with a cane. Even after she had total knee replacement in 2012 on her left knee to help soothe the pain, she had to turn down much-cherished shopping […]
FDA’s Notice on Morcellation Stirs Up Fears and Not Enough Questions
By Ruth Kaufman Last December, a Boston anesthesiologist and her husband, a surgeon, launched a campaign to end the use of a popular surgical technique used during hysterectomies and myomectomies. They say that the technique, known as laparoscopic power morcellation, caused her undetected cancer to spread dangerously fast throughout her body. In response, the U.S. […]
The Evolution of Cataract Surgery
Simple and effective, removing a cataract is the sensible and first step to better sight By Terri Yablonsky Stat Gone are the days of wearing thick Coke-bottle glasses following cataract surgery. Today’s modern cataract removal procedures not only remove the cataract, but they can correct the faulty vision underneath at the same time. A cataract is a clouded lens of the […]
Repeat After Me: “Do Not Repeat”
Carpal tunnel syndrome is not just the plague of the typistBy Karen Schwartz You’re writing an e-mail, aware of a constant tingling in your wrist as you type. Or maybe you’re a musician jamming with some buddies, and you notice that there’s some numbness in your hand and wrist as you strum your guitar. It […]
An Eye For Business: Taking A Look At Lasik, America’s Favorite Surgery
By Patrick Kenney No elective surgery has attained as widespread an appeal and acceptance as has LASIK. Over the last couple decades, particularly since the Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval in 1999, the procedure of laser in-situ keratomileusis has corrected the vision of millions of people, giving the rather extraordinary process a mundane quality—like a […]
Flex Time
More patients are spending less time recovering from joint-related surgeries By Nancy Maes Ron Allen was born with an improperly formed hip joint. While the problem didn’t stop him from going to college on an athletic scholarship, it was causing him such excruciating pain that by age 40, he opted for replacement surgery on his […]
Sitting at the Unpopular Table
Lesser-known cancers deserve far more attention By Nancy Maes Some cancers, such as breast, colon and lung, are well known. And like principal actors in a movie, they get a great deal of time in the media spotlight. Meanwhile the lesser-known cancers are like the character actors and, therefore, receive far less attention. But these […]
Act Fast to Help Stroke Care
By Eve Becker Last January, Mark Kirk woke up with a headache. It worsened as the morning progressed, followed by vision problems and numbness in his hands. Symptoms became alarmingly more severe. His staff drove him to the emergency room, where it was determined that the junior senator from Illinois had suffered an ischemic stroke; […]
Physical Therapy after Joint Replacement Surgery
The recipe for a successful return to normal activities By Nancy Maes When extensive pain makes knee or hip replacement a necessity, it sometimes is beneficial to go through a presurgical round of physical therapy with a trained physical therapist. “If a patient lacks strength or range of motion before surgery, it can be beneficial […]
Multiple Choice
Breakthrough technologies broaden options for hip and knee replacement hopefuls It had been months since Cheryl Risicato, 56, a retired cake decorator and avid dog lover, first came to Chicago’s Northwest Community Hospital (NCH) seeking partial knee replacement surgery. Risicato, like so many other Americans, suffered from osteoarthritis, a common yet potentially excruciating joint disorder […]
Triathlon Recovery
A lifetime runner gets a second chance with a total knee replacement Fear of immobility caused William Marty to postpone knee replacement surgery until it was almost too late. A professor at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago since 1980, Marty had been an avid lifelong runner. As a college student, he attended Biola University in Los […]
The Surgery Diet
Bariatric surgery is not a permanent fix to obesity, but there are newfound benefits Weight-loss surgery can be life changing when diet and exercise fall short. The field of bariatric surgery has undergone its own transformation in recent years, with new techniques and discoveries that not only help people shed pounds, but control, and even […]
Defying the Odds
Meniscal transplant breathes life into athletic hopes of 16-year-old Lake Forest resident. On a warm afternoon this past July, Chet Baker was startled by the sound of his 16-year-old daughter Kristen bounding down the stairs. That day marked just five months since she’d undergone a meniscal, or cartilage, transplant—three months too early for her to […]
Age of the Machines
How the da Vinci robot is changing the face of surgery. The idea of machines conducting procedures on human beings has been a stronghold in science fiction for a while. We’ve seen the imagery countless times in books, on television and in movies. But only in the last decade has this futuristic vision become a day-to-day reality. […]
A New Frontier
How a molecule in the cornea could help fight blindness—and maybe cancer This is how scientific discovery begins; a question that doesn’t have an answer meets intelligent people who won’t rest until they find one. “Why is it that the cornea is clear?” Dr. Dimitri Azar, interim dean, College of Medicine professor and head of […]
Change of Heart
Incredible new technologies keep the heart pumping On a multiple-choice quiz, a fair amount of people would be able to correctly select Christiaan Barnard as the first doctor to perform a human heart transplant in 1967. That milestone in cardiac surgery is now a commonplace procedure that no longer makes the headlines. But it doesn’t […]
Out of Joint: Hip and Knee Replacement
Joint stiffness and pain, particularly in the hip and knee, can have a serious impact on a sufferer’s quality of life, limiting both athletic pursuits and everyday physical activities. When the pain and loss of function are severe, the culprit is often osteoarthritis, which is caused by the breakdown of joint cartilage. Though such a […]
