Archives: 2/2005

the good old days...

Gheorghe Marinescu and the origins of medical cinematography

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 11, 2005 • 12:46 am

Marinescu Gheorghe Marinescu and the origins of medical cinematographyOur regular Friday feature of looking back at the good old days continues. American Academy of Neurology, in cooperation with the Romanian State Archives, has released some of the oldest medical films available anywhere. Shot by a Romanian neurologist Gheorghe Marinescu at the end of 19th century, these cinematographic studies are focused on organic gait disorders and other neurologic deficiencies.
From the abstract:

Between 1899 and 1902, Marinescu perfected the use of cinematography as a research method in neurosciences and published five articles based on cinematographic documents. He focused his studies particularly on organic gait disorders, locomotor ataxia, and hysteria. He adapted Charcot’s method of lining up several patients with the same disorder and showing them together to permit appreciation of archetypes and formes frustes ["an incomplete, abortive, or unusual form of a syndrome or disease" -ed.]. He decomposed the moving pictures into sequential tracings for publication. He documented treatment results with cases filmed before and after therapy.

Watch it here: films 1-4; films 5-8.
Have a wonderful and safe weekend everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

Neurological Surgery / Surgery

Virtual 3D surgical patient

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 10, 2005 • 3:54 am

atamaiScreenshot Virtual 3D surgical patient
The London Free Press of Ontario has a story about the development of a virtual surgical patient by Atamai Inc., in collaboration with Hollywood:

A small London software company has teamed with Hollywood special effects wizards to create a surgeon’s diagnostic dream — the virtual patient. The software designed by Atamai Inc. of London produces a lifelike 3-D image allowing surgeons to look inside a patient’s brain or beating heart before and during an operation.
“It’s a little bit like Superman’s X-ray vision. . . . It guides your direction through the brain to a deep-seated tumour,” said Atamai president Dr. Yves Starreveld, a neurosurgeon at London Health Sciences Centre.
The technology — developed by researchers, the London software company and a California high-tech giant — has yielded what backers say is the first virtual patient.
Atamai’s partner is Silicon Graphics Inc., a California company that developed the visual effects technology used in such blockbuster movies as Shrek and Lord of the Rings.
Starreveld has already used the virtual patient device to perform epilepsy brain surgeries. Hospitals in Calgary, Halifax and Norway also are testing the device.
The virtual patient is expected to be vital in “keyhole” surgery, which uses the smallest possible incisions.
“In the simplest terms, it’s helping me decide where to make the hole in someone’s head to find a brain tumour,” Starreveld said.
The virtual patient also could be a powerful tool in performing long-distance robotic surgery. That technique, pioneered in London, allows a surgeon to use a computer and an electronic link to perform surgery on a patient at another site.
… the software combines information from other systems, including MRI, CT scan and ultrasound, to deliver a precise image of a real patient in real time. He said the imaging system will be a great training and education tool.

More at Atamai…

Ob/Gyn / Reproductive Medicine

Eros Therapy

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 10, 2005 • 1:44 am

eros device Eros TherapyIn an article at the RedNova News about female sexual health, we read about a device that neither we nor our doctors’ wives knew anything about. And, yes (yes! yes! yes!), the device has been approved by the FDA.
From the company’s website:

The Eros Therapy device is a small, handheld medical device that improves your sexual responses by increasing blood flow to the clitoris and external genitalia. It is lightweight, easy to use and available by a doctor’s prescription only. The Eros Therapy device is used in the privacy of your home and should be used three to four times per week to achieve the maximum benefits the Eros offers. You may use the Eros Therapy device either prior to having intercourse or therapeutically without having intercourse. Think of Eros Therapy as a conditioning routine to restore blood flow to your clitoris and genitalia and to increase your overall sexual satisfaction.
Clinical studies have proven that Eros Therapy is safe and effective. There are no reported side effects when the Eros Therapy device is used as directed.
How does the Eros Therapy device work?
The soft CAREss cup is placed over the clitoris. When the Eros Therapy device is turned on a gentle vacuum is created, increasing blood flow to the genital area. This increase in blood flow results in:
– Increased clitoral and genital sensitivity
– Improved lubrication
– Improved ability to achieve orgasm
– Increased overall sexual satisfaction

More at EROS Therapy…

Pediatrics

In the works: baby alert system

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 10, 2005 • 1:37 am

premature203 In the works: baby alert system
BBC News reports about a new system that is being tested to alert neonatologists about sudden deteriorations in a baby’s health:

Hospitals already use commercial monitors to check vital signs that allow the doctor to tell how a baby is doing.
However, looking at real-time readings — as they happen — will not always alert doctors that there is a problem until it is quite advanced.
Professor McIntosh said: “For example, we know that if a baby’s lungs rupture when ventilated it takes about two hours to make the diagnosis and about 40% of such babies would die.
“With our system we can pick up almost all of those within 10 minutes.
“That clearly gives a lot of time to manage the baby and get them out of the downwards spiral that they might otherwise get into,” he said.
The device comprises a normal computer with advanced software that took the team 10 years to develop.
The software looks at the data recorded by the commercial monitors and looks for downward trends in a baby’s vital signs long before the baby reaches crisis point.
The team are still working out the best way to alert doctors when such trends are spotted, which could include a buzzer and a written warning that would flash across the computer screen.
Professor McIntosh said they have been monitoring about 10 babies at a time using their new device.
The team have three years funding to continue their work, involving more than 2,000 premature babies.

You can also listen to the BBC report about how this system works.

Society

TSA tries to finesse checks of people with implants

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 10, 2005 • 12:38 am

USA Today reports about Transportation Security Administration’s efforts to change the screening process of passengers with implanted medical devices:

Last week, the TSA finished filming an instructional video that teaches screeners how to pat down passengers with newly implanted heart devices without hurting them, Cammaroto says. She received at least two letters from people complaining that screeners hurt them by pressing too hard on their surgical area, she says. The area just below the collarbone can feel sore for weeks after surgery.
“The last thing we want to do in the process is cause this person more pain,” Cammaroto says. The video instructs screeners to pat surgical areas lightly and avoid moving clothing, since it won’t reveal anything anyway, she says.

Informatics

Single-use patient RFID by Radianse

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 10, 2005 • 12:26 am

radianse band Single use patient RFID by RadianseMobileMag.com reports about a new RFID band to track patients inside the hospital:

Radianse has created a single-use patient locator RFID wrist band. The tag can be slipped onto a patient’s wrist or ankle and setup to show their location information and report it to a cell phone, from admission to discharge, or if they have left the compound and wandered about.
Using a hospitals existing WiFi network, the Radianse RFID tags transmit continuous radio signals to Radianse receivers. These receivers plug into a hospital’s existing wired or wireless LAN with no danger of interfering with mission-critical clinical applications or devices.
The Radianse single-use active-RFID location tag is scheduled for commercial shipments in the second half of 2005 after trials at select Radianse installations across the U.S.

The original press release is here.
To read more about Radianse indoor positioning solutions visit the company website…

Sports Medicine

FIFA to establish a medical research center

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 10, 2005 • 12:01 am

fifa logo FIFA to establish a medical research center
Not really medgadget news, but the Associated Press is reporting that FIFA is to research mysterious soccer deaths:

FIFA plans to establish a medical research center in response to a series of heart-related deaths on soccer fields around the world, president Sepp Blatter said Wednesday.
Blatter’s comments came only two days after 28-year-old Slovene goalkeeper Nedzad Botonjic suddenly collapsed and died during training.
“We have called the national associations and the clubs to make sure that the players undergo controls,” Blatter said during a one-day trip to the Slovene capital.
Last year, Hungary player Miklos Feher died while playing for Benfica. Cameroon star midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe also died during the 2003 Confederations Cup in France.
Blatter stressed the importance of cardiovascular testing, adding that soccer’s world governing body will approve the establishment of a medical center next month in the Swiss capital Zurich. FIFA hopes to uncover the reasons behind sudden deaths of top athletes, particularly during training or matches.

Anesthesiology / Military Medicine

Regional Anesthesia in the Field

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 9, 2005 • 2:40 pm

regionalneedle Regional Anesthesia in the Field Wired magazine has an excellent article regarding the use of regional anesthesia in the US military. In the last two hundred years, the technique of treating pain has remained effectively the same. Today, using continuous peripheral nerve blocks, pain relief can be more humane and effective for wounded soldiers.

While the process of extracting injured troops from combat zones has been streamlined, the methods for relieving their agony during evacuation has lagged. Until recently, the military’s approach to pain control hadn’t changed much since the days when the battlefield anesthetics of choice were rum, ether, and narcotics.
…
Now Buckenmaier is leading a group of army doctors and nurses determined, as he puts it, “to drag the military kicking and screaming into the 21st century.” His team believes the future of wartime pain control is a new form of anesthesia called a continuous peripheral nerve block, which takes a more targeted approach by switching off only the pain signals coming from the injured limb, leaving patients’ vital signs and cortical functions unimpaired.
Because nerve blocks affect a precise area of the body, they fall under the category of regional (rather than general or local) anesthesia. An elementary form of regional anesthesia is already widely used in maternity wards: the epidural block, employed to numb the pain of labor and achieved by injecting analgesics and narcotics along the spine.

To further familiarize yourself with regional anesthesia, you should visit the website of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. It is quite unfortunate that the society does not have webpages dedicated to a full spectrum of available regional techniques throughout the body. One area that they cover moderately-well, in my opinion, is anesthesia of the upper extremity, a.k.a. brachial plexus blocks.

Cardiac Surgery / Cardiology

VentrAssist LVAS

by Gene Ostrovsky on Feb 9, 2005 • 5:26 am

ventassist productpro VentrAssist LVAS
According to Ventracor Ltd. of Australia, the company has received a conditional approval from the FDA for a feasibility study of its cardiac assist device in the USA.
From the company’s website:

VentrAssist™ is a new third generation cardiac assist system primarily designed as a permanent alternative to heart transplants for patients suffering heart failure.
It is a blood pump that connects to the left ventricle of the diseased heart to help the ailing heart’s pumping function and assist in restoring a better quality of life.
It can also be used as a bridge to heart transplant and possibly as a bridge to recovery, where it may allow a deteriorating heart an opportunity to recuperate.
VentrAssist™ has only one moving part – a hydrodynamically suspended impeller. It has been designed to have no wearing parts or cause blood damage.
It weighs just 298 grams (10oz) and measures 60mm (2.5 inches) in diameter, making it suitable for both children and adults.
The implanted parts of the VentrAssist™ system use materials which are fully biocompatible including titanium alloys. Its components are light, strong, non-toxic and highly resistant to degradation within the body.

More at Ventracor…

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