When I was a resident (over ten years ago!) we were taught that there was no evidence that breast self-examination saved lives. A new review puts another nail in the coffin of breast self-examination. This week the Cochrane Review published a re-analysis of a review of the scientific studies on breast examination. The conclusion: women who perform breast self-examination undergo more breast biopsies but die of breast cancer at the same rate as women who do not examine themselves. The same ap...
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A Family of Antibiotics Linked to Tendon Rupture
This week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested a new warning on a family of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. This family includes ciprofloxacin (Cipro), levofloxacin (Levaquin), moxifloxacin (Avelox) and others. The warning has to do with the increased risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture due to these antibiotics.
This information is not new. The increased risk has been known for a few years, but as additional cases have been reported, the FDA chose to act.
This complicatio...
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Summer Swimming Safety
"Summertime, And the livin' is easy" -- George Gershwin
Summer is here, and especially in Southern California, that means opportunities to enjoy lots of outdoor activities including fun days at the beach and in the pool. Unfortunately that also means more accidental drowning. In 2005 there were 3,582 drowning fatalities in the United States, a quarter of them in kids 14 and under. So this is a good time to remind ourselves never to leave children unattended in or near a p...