Before you get hip replacement surgery, an orthopedic surgeon generally performs several tests to help ensure a good outcome, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Fortunately, the success rates for hip replacement surgery are generally high, although they can vary based on the type of implant used.
For example, a number of studies have shown that nearly half of metal-on-metal hip implants – featuring both a ball and a socket coated in a ...
continue reading...
A story in the Chicago Tribune deals with a U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation into the German company Fresenius, based on reports that the company failed to warn dialysis clinics about possible dangers from one of its products.
The story says that in November, 2011, Fresenius sent a memo to dialysis centers that the company operates in the United States, warning them that its Granuflo product was linked with a ...
continue reading...
A story in the London Evening Standard out of the U.K. says the parents of a seven-year-old boy who suffered traumatic brain injury at birth were awarded the equivalent of about $13 million.
According to the story, officials at Princess Royal hospital admitted full responsibility and apologized for the accident that left the boy with cerebral palsy.
During his mother’s labor, the boy’s brain was starved of ...
continue reading...
One-third of all U.S. adults have high blood pressure, according to a story in the Huffington Post.
A report based on a 2009 survey found that the country’s overall rate of high blood pressure (also called hypertension) rose in nearly every state since 2005 – from 25.8 percent to 28.3 percent.
Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, the story says.
The rates vary widely by state, from ...
continue reading...
According to a report on Michigan Live, the Michigan Court of Appeals is allowing state Attorney General Bill Schuette to empanel a multi-district grand jury, tasked with investigating the specialty pharmacy responsible for a nationwide meningitis outbreak.
In filing his request last month, Schuette argued that a grand jury would be able compel testimony in order to determine whether the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center broke any Michigan laws when ...
continue reading...A national survey has found that increasing numbers of women in the United States are using intrauterine devices (IUDs) as their reversible birth control method, Reuters reports.
Researchers found that 8.5 percent of U.S. women using birth control in 2009 chose an IUD or contraceptive implant, compared to just under four percent in 2007.
Reproductive health experts say that IUDs are the most effective method of birth control. But some health care providers still harbor reservations about the IUDs.
When IUDs first came ...
continue reading...
