Readers who have been following my posts for a few years know that weight-loss surgery is amassing an impressive body of scientific evidence supporting its effectiveness and safety. (Links to my previous posts about weight loss surgery are below.)
This week, two studies in the Archives of Surgery attempted to compare the different kinds of weight loss surgery. An LA Times article (link below) has a clear explanation of the different kinds of surgery and summarizes the findings of the studies. T...
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This Isn’t Your Father’s Heart Disease
What’s the most common cause of death among American women? Breast cancer? Accidents? Suicide after watching too many Lifetime Channel specials? Nope. Heart attacks kill more women than any other cause—same as men. A generation ago heart disease was mistakenly thought of as an exclusively male disease, but patients and physicians have learned that preventing and treating heart disease is critical in women too.
This week the American Heart Association published their updated recommendations for ...
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An Advance in Breast Cancer Surgery
Breast cancer surgery began long before radiation therapy, chemotherapy or hormonal therapy existed. At that time surgery was the only available treatment. The standard of care was radical mastectomy – removal of the entire breast tissue with the underlying muscle and removal of all the lymph nodes from the arm pit. The surgery is terribly disfiguring and debilitating, but was the only thing standing between patients and a fatal illness. Radical mastectomy was first performed in the 1880s and re...
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Benzonatate: A Cough Suppressant So Dangerous, You’d Rather Just Cough
Benzonatate is a cough suppressant available by prescription as a generic medication or under the brand Tessalon. It is chemically related to medicines used as local anesthetics and works by numbing the nerves in the lungs which trigger a cough reflex. It was approved by the FDA in the 1950s.
A recent issue of The Medical Letter briefly highlighted an FDA warning about benzonatate. (Links to The Medical Letter review and the FDA warning are below.)
The FDA warning focused on accidental overdos...
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