A unit of Johnson & Johnson has issued a recall for certain lots of bone putty, which is used to stop bone bleeding by creating a physical barrier along the edges of bones damaged by trauma or cut during a surgical procedure.
Reuters reports that Synthes issued the recall on July 5, citing the potential for the putty to catch fire if it came in contact with electrosurgical cautery systems during ...
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According to a report in ScienceDaily, a hormone skin gel is showing promise as a form of male birth control.
At The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston, scientists unveiled preliminary research indicating that an application of both testosterone and a synthetic progestin hormone called Nestorone to the skin significantly lowered the sperm counts in men tested.
The report quotes principal investigator Christine Wang, MD, professor at Los Angeles Biomedical Research ...
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The current issue of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices’ QuarterWatch report lists Yaz/Yasmin birth control pills as the drug with the second-highest number of adverse events reported in connection with lawsuits in 2011.
Quarterwatch says 8,354 Yaz/Yasmin-related cases were reported in 2011. That puts the contraceptive second only to anti-nausea drug Metoclopramide, which was the subject of 11,450 such reports.
The report says Yaz ...
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In an article for the New York Review of Books, Marcia Angell examines the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as well as several recent books by mental health professionals that take a critical look at modern psychiatry’s over-reliance on pharmaceuticals.
She writes that the books “document the ‘frenzy’ of diagnosis, the overuse of drugs with sometimes devastating side effects, and widespread conflicts ...
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Of all medical devices, according to an article by the Consumers Union, cardiac devices dominate the list of reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of deaths and injuries.
The report spotlights IVC filters, which are placed in the vessel that returns blood from the lower body to the heart to prevent pulmonary embolism — a life-threatening condition caused by blood clots breaking loose and traveling to the ...
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A cardiologist who conducted a study of St. Jude Medical defibrillator leads said surgeons should stop implanting them in patients until more research is done about safety concerns surrounding the devices.
The New York Times quotes Dr. Robert G. Hauser of Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis as saying: “There is no need to use this lead until we have more confidence in its performance.”
The devices are wires that connect a patient’s ...
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