Superglue

Surgery is obviously complicated and recovery times from surgeries can be really fast or seem to drag on forever. In order to drastically speed up recovery times of people who have to have their chest opened up doctors are now using superglue to help heal the bones effected.

Superglue is harmless in our nice bodies and the glue used in the surgery is actually derived from natural sources.

Instead of it taking six to eight weeks for the bone to fuse back together, “we do it in 24 hours.” The glue makes it rock solid within a day.

A study released Sunday suggests the use of adhesive in chest surgery reduces the normal recovery time by half. Patients have less physical disability in the first six weeks after surgery and can breathe deeply sooner, Dr. Fedak reports. He adds that patients are able to cough with less discomfort and require significantly less medication such as narcotics to manage pain.

No complications or side effects from the glue were reported among the 55 patients in the randomized controlled trial.

The procedure has the potential to improve post-operative care for an estimated 1.4 million open-chest surgeries performed worldwide each year, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

Read the rest of the article at The Globe.

Thanks to Astrid for the find!

The Dark Side of Hope

You’ve probably heard people say that we should have reasonable goals and, you know what, they’re right. If you have reasonable expectations about the world around you, you can have a happier life – some new research backs this idea up by studying happiness in people after a major surgery.

GIVING up hope can actually make some people living with a serious illness happier, according to US researchers who have found a “dark side of hope”.

A study by the University of Michigan Health Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine involved a group of adults who had their colons removed.

In total 41 people were told their colostomy was reversible and they could undergo a second operation to reconnect their bowels after several months and get rid of their colostomy bag.

Another 30 individuals were told that the colostomy was permanent.

The study, published in the latest issue of Health Psychology, found the second group, the one without hope, reported being happier over the next six months than those with reversible colostomies.

“We think they were happier because they got on with their lives,” researcher Peter Ubel said.

Read the rest of the article.

‘Bloodless’ Surgery becoming more popular

Surgical techniques that do not require blood transfusions are becoming more and more popular, according to an article on MSNBC. Surgeons use a variety of techniques and technologies to minimize or remove the need for costly blood transfusions during surgery.

These bloodless operations were once only available to Jehova’s Witnesses, who’s religion prohibits blood transfusions, but are now being offered tothe general public at many hospitals.

Transfusions are very costly, and also carry a risk of rejection by the patient. Many people opt to have transfusions of their own blood, drawn in advance, before a surgery. Bloodless surgery techniques save money and are better for the patient.

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