David Bernard at Outpatient Surgery Magazine recently published an important article entitled Epidural Steroid Injections Under Scrutiny.
Corticosteroid injections into the epidural part of the spine has been a long-practiced technique for managing pain, swelling and inflammation. There are risks involved with this practice, however. The FDA warns that in some cases, patients suffer neurological complications or even death.
If the use of epidural steroid injections is a commonly used practice in your surgical center, make sure that you and your patients are aware of the risks.
Are your patients following a low-dose aspirin regimen thinking it will reduce their risk of stroke, heart attack or heart disease? According to researchers and the 2019 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, they should stop immediately. Three recent studies have found that aspirin therapy may not be benefiting them. And, in some cases, it could be doing harm.
As healthcare professionals, we hear a lot about hypertension and its negative effect on overall health. But, we don’t talk as much as we should about pulmonary hypertension (PH) — the type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries that run between the lungs and heart. Because PH is a progressive condition that if untreated can result in death in as little as two years, it deserves its own spotlight.
The majority of men are still so private when it comes to their health concerns, they don’t even discuss them with a doctor. That’s one of the revelations reported by the Cleveland Clinic in their newest nationwide survey of male patients.
