News tagged with 'Medical Procedures'

An ethical debate is brewing over just how long someone should be dead before their organs are harvested.  Is brain dead, dead enough?  Or should the brain, heart and lungs have ceased functioning irreversibly for a period of time before organs are taken?  Is 75 seconds enough time? This emotional debate has both sides speaking out.

Advances in radiation therapy have dramatically improved medical practice today. CT scans and nuclear medical exams allow physicians the capacity to pinpoint and diagnose a number of health problems. But radiation in these machines can be a risk to patients. Americans are being exposed to more amounts of radiatio

Federal regulators announced this week that the American Red Cross recently received 134 reports of patients contracting hepatitis B after blood transfusions. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Red Cross, which handles nearly half of the nation's blood supply, failed to investigate the hepati

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the blood banking community to assess and manage the potential risk of West Nile Virus transmission from blood and blood products. A small number of cases of West Nile Virus infection have been linked

A contaminated blood donation scandal that may have led to thousands contracting HIV and hepatitis C led a Royal Canadian Mounted Police task force to file charges Wednesday against the Canadian Red Cross, a U.S. pharmaceutical company and four physicians. According to authorities, a recently concluded five-year inves

A study published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that for-profit dialysis centers increase a patient's risk of death by eight percent. As part of their analysis, researchers with McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario examined eight studies of U.S dialysis facilities

Several new reports on the safety of a popular non-surgical procedure used to treat uterine fibroids (benign tumors consisting of fibrous and muscular tissue) are raising questions in the medical community. During uterine artery embolization (UAE), physicians inject pellets into uterine arteries, cutting off the blood

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has notified healthcare professionals about complications related to the use of polymethylmethacrylate bone cement to treat osteoporotic compression fractures of the spine using surgical procedures known as vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. Reported complications, such as soft

More evidence was revealed Monday linking West Nile Virus (WNV) to contaminated blood transfusions. In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Dispatch Report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that 17 states have reported 33 cases of WNV infection among persons who received a blood transfu

In a recent CBS news report, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accused the Red Cross of repeatedly taking blood from high-risk donors infected with hepatitis and other diseases. According to the FDA, which is asking a Federal judge to fine the organization over its inadequate blood-collecting procedures, the

The Florida Department of Health (FDH) announced Friday that a seven-year-old Alachua County boy recently diagnosed with the West Nile Virus may have contracted the disease from a contaminated blood transfusion. Investigators told health officials that the child recently received "multiple blood products," but insiste

Oregon health officials announced today that as many as 40 people may have received organs or tissue contaminated with the liver disease hepatitis C. Investigators with the Oregon Health Department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the tainted organs and tissue came from one O

Concern over the West Nile Virus' link to organ transplants and blood donations intensified this week when a Maryland woman died of the illness less than one month after receiving a kidney transplant. Although initial tests on the organ donor for the virus were negative, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preven

A new study on the effectiveness of breast self-examination (BSE) reveals that the procedure does not reduce a woman's risk of dying from cancer. Designed to detect lumps at an early stage, BSE requires women to use their fingers to search for any abnormalities on their breasts that may be an early indication of cance

According to a report in Wednesday's issue of New Scientist magazine, transmission-related acute lung injury (TRALI), a preventable adverse immune reaction caused by antibodies in donated blood, is causing close to 500 deaths a year. Physicians usually see TRALI cases after a patient has received donated blood that ha