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Boston (UPI) Sep 26, 2010 Medical researchers in the United States say they are poised to begin human trials on a suspended-animation technique for surgery patients. The idea is to use extreme hypothermia to basically shut down the body during emergency trauma surgery, giving doctors more time to work and less need for anesthetics and life-support equipment. Dr Hasan Alam, a leader of the research team from Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, told the BBC that dropping the body's core temperature as low as 50 degrees Fahrenheit can work for as long as three hours without causing brain damage. "In a trauma ward you only have a few minutes to make a repair," London anaesthetist Dr. Kevin Fong told the BBC. "By inducing hypothermia in trauma patients you can extend that and giving more of an opportunity for survival than was there before." The technique, which has been successful on animals, involves replacing the patient's blood with a cold saline solution using a pump.
earlier related report The millimeter-sized metal tools that can change shape on command, clamping shut or popping open in response to specific chemical cues, may someday be used to biopsy a liver, open a clogged artery or deliver drugs to a specific target, ScienceNews.org reported Friday. David Gracias and a team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have created devices that can respond to chemicals in the right time and place, yet still be friendly inside the body. The tiny metal devices made with chromium, nickel and gold are assembled with parts that look the petals of a flower or the open palm of a hand. In the presence of enzymes within the body, the devices can be prompted to spring shut or pop open. To test their clampers the team made some fake innards from resin and embedded some hard-to-reach bird liver tissue inside. Using a magnet, they moved the clampers through the simulated bile duct and into the liver, then added a human enzyme, cellulase, with a syringe. The gripper closed around the bit of bird tissue, then the team guided the grippers back out with a magnet, having performed a rough version of a biopsy.
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Singapore turns out new generation of Chinese physiciansSingapore (AFP) Sept 26, 2010 When she was growing up, Chua Huiling always wondered why her grandmother's doctor used no stethoscope but just a pair of chopsticks commonly found in any Chinese Singaporean household. Huiling had no idea what kind of treatment he administered but it was obviously effective because her grandmother always recovered from her ailments after seeing the physician. The 24-year-old finally has ... read more |
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