Minimally-invasive surgery has proven to be safer, requires a shorter hospital stay and is cosmetically preferred over conventional surgery because the incisions are much smaller.
But while procedures such as a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) have become commonplace since the 1980s, cardiothoracic surgeons have largely relied on traditional methods, not the least of which is cracking open a patient's chest in order to fully expose the heart.



What do you think of when you hear the word simulation? Probably the first thing that comes to mind is flight simulation, where pilots and pilots-in-training learn how to fly. Simulation has been used over the years, most recognizably, for flight and combat; however, a new area in which simulation technology has taken hold is medicine.



In the microscopic world of arterial plaque, the only positive thing about positive remodeling is that physicians can visualize it — now noninvasively with multislice detector computed tomography (MDCT) — and treat it before it strikes with deadly force. But early detection of positively remodeled plaque, or the atherosclerotic thickening of vessel walls with outward expansion, is the ongoing challenge cardiologists face, even as 1.2 million Americans suffer a new or recurrent coronary attack each year.



One of the highest priorities for physicians who diagnose and treat heart failure conditions is to keep their patients stable and out of the hospital. To accomplish this, they choose from a wide variety of event monitoring devices that serve specific purposes and enable doctors to skillfully embark on a well-navigated journey of therapy.



Women's heart health continues to grow as an awareness topic among the general public, and behind the scenes physicians and medical companies are working furiously not only to determine the difference between male and female cardiology, but to find better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cardiac disease.

According to the American Heart Association, almost twice as many women in the U.S. die of heart disease and stroke than all forms of cancer combined.



As costs continue to soar for the medical community, health professionals are looking for ways to save money while not jeopardizing the quality of the healthcare they deliver to patients.
One way medical centers and hospitals can keep costs down is through the purchase and application of refurbished imaging equipment.
Major equipment manufacturers, such as Siemens Medical Solutions, GE Healthcare and Phillips Medical Systems, are all in the business of refurbishing equipment for resale and reuse.



I only just heard the term “positive remodeling” for the first time last fall, and I assumed it was something, well, positive, like a self-mending process of some sort. But in the cardiac context of arterial remodeling, which refers to the build-up of plaque in the coronary arteries, positive remodeling is the worse of two types.



It’s like a never-ending battle — that’s how Lena Napolitano, M.D., describes the recent and sharp rise in nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.
The professor in the department of surgery at the University of Michigan said MRSA is now the most frequent cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia and surgical wound infections, as well as the most common gram-positive bacteria in hospitals today.


Blood pressure measurement is a given for patients in the hospital, but for surgical or critically ill patients — in operating rooms, surgical recovery rooms, intensive care units, emergency departments and other critical care areas — frequent or continual blood pressure is imperative.


Subscribe Now