Medscape Medical News
Robert Lowes
Sept 05, 2013
More injuries and deaths are linked to da Vinci robotic surgery than meet the eye, according to a new study published online August 27 in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.
As a result, "we're not learning from our performance," study coauthor Martin Makary, MD, MPH, told Medscape Medical News.
Between January 1, 2000, and August 1, 2012, the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) received 245 adverse event (AE) reports related to
the controversial da Vinci robotic surgical system, made by Intuitive
Surgical. Scouring federal court records and media accounts, Dr. Makary
and colleagues found 5 more cases that were never reported. They also
discovered that 3 reported cases were problematic. One was submitted 930
days after the surgery, and another 292 days after. The latter case, as
well as a third dubious one, was submitted to the FDA only after a
media report of the patient's death appeared.
Read the full Medscape report
Showing posts with label Prostate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prostate. Show all posts
Friday, September 20, 2013
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Should Men Take Finasteride to Prevent Prostate Cancer ?
A recent update to an important study analyzes whether the benefits
outweigh the risks to taking finasteride to prevent prostate cancer.
Dr. Gerald Chodak discusses this subject in this new video from ProstateVideos.com.
Dr. Gerald Chodak discusses this subject in this new video from ProstateVideos.com.
New Prostate Screening Guidance 'Unbalanced'?
Medscape - August 16, 2013
Gerald Chodak
At the Prostate Cancer World Congress in Australia, a group of experts came up with some new recommendations regarding prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing. This was partly in response to the US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations against routine screening. This 6-point recommendation has what Dr. Gerald Chodak thinks are a number of biased statements that potentially lead to misinformation.
Read/Watch Dr. Gerald Chodak's thoughts on this matter in this Medscape report
(Free sign-up may be required)
Gerald Chodak
At the Prostate Cancer World Congress in Australia, a group of experts came up with some new recommendations regarding prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing. This was partly in response to the US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations against routine screening. This 6-point recommendation has what Dr. Gerald Chodak thinks are a number of biased statements that potentially lead to misinformation.
Read/Watch Dr. Gerald Chodak's thoughts on this matter in this Medscape report
(Free sign-up may be required)
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Monday, July 23, 2012
Does Selenium Help to Prevent Prostate Cancer
In today's video, Dr. Gerald Chodak discusses recent studies about the relationship between selenium levels and the risk of developing prostate cancer.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
U.S. task force: End routine prostate cancer screening
NEW YORK (Reuters) -
A task force advising the U.S. government on Monday recommended against routine use of the prostate-cancer screening test called PSA, or prostate specific antigen, for lack of a discernible health benefit.
Like a draft proposal last October, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave PSA screening a D, for "don't recommend" in healthy men.
PSA, a blood test, is a poor screening tool because PSA levels can rise for reasons unrelated to cancer, including age and prostate enlargement. Yet an elevated PSA level can trigger a biopsy to check for cancer.
Most biopsies show no cancer, which means the PSA was a false positive.
Against the tiny benefit of PSA testing, the task force weighed its harms. At least 15 percent of PSA tests will trigger a biopsy, after which up to one-third of men experience pain, fever, bleeding, infection, difficulty urinating, or other problems requiring medical attention, studies show.
"When you stack up those harms, the tiny or zero benefits do not outweigh the risk," said task force co-chair Dr. Michael LeFevre of the University of Missouri Medical School. Because PSA tests cannot distinguish between aggressive and indolent cancer, said ACS's Brawley, "men are rendered impotent and put in diapers, and for what?" he asked. "They never really had cancer in the first place."
Read the full Reuters report:
U.S. task force: End routine prostate cancer screening:
A task force advising the U.S. government on Monday recommended against routine use of the prostate-cancer screening test called PSA, or prostate specific antigen, for lack of a discernible health benefit.
Like a draft proposal last October, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave PSA screening a D, for "don't recommend" in healthy men.
PSA, a blood test, is a poor screening tool because PSA levels can rise for reasons unrelated to cancer, including age and prostate enlargement. Yet an elevated PSA level can trigger a biopsy to check for cancer.
Most biopsies show no cancer, which means the PSA was a false positive.
Against the tiny benefit of PSA testing, the task force weighed its harms. At least 15 percent of PSA tests will trigger a biopsy, after which up to one-third of men experience pain, fever, bleeding, infection, difficulty urinating, or other problems requiring medical attention, studies show.
"When you stack up those harms, the tiny or zero benefits do not outweigh the risk," said task force co-chair Dr. Michael LeFevre of the University of Missouri Medical School. Because PSA tests cannot distinguish between aggressive and indolent cancer, said ACS's Brawley, "men are rendered impotent and put in diapers, and for what?" he asked. "They never really had cancer in the first place."
Read the full Reuters report:
U.S. task force: End routine prostate cancer screening:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)