Check this out: Multivitamins and prostate cancer … gotta run….

Flossmann and Rothwell, published in the Lancet a review of two studies: the British Doctors Aspirin Trial (N=5139, two-thirds allocated 500 mg aspirin for 5 years, one third to open control) and UK-TIA Aspirin Trial (N=2449, two-thirds allocated 300 mg or 1200 mg aspirin for 1–7 years, one third placebo-controlled).

After ten years of follow-up, there was a statistically significant reduction in colorectal cancers among those who had received aspirin. The was a 40% relative reduction in new diagnosis of colorectal cancers among those who had received aspirin for at least five years.

Other studies have shown that there was no reduction in colorectal cancers in patients who used aspirin at lower doses.

There are a number of other protective effects of aspirin, e.g. against heart attacks. However, there are undesirable effects of aspirin as well, such as gastric ulcers. So it’s a balance between the benefits and hazards of taking aspirin.

HAPPY NURSES’ DAY!

The theme for Nurses’ Day celebrations for this year is “Positive practice environments:
Quality workplaces = quality patient care”

Nurses in various uniforms:

“MAGS” is another idea to decrease the scars on the abdomen for minimal access surgery. It is a developmental system to position instruments in the abdomen and control the instruments.

This was announced by a team of doctors and engineers in Southwestern Medical Center in March this year. It was published in the Annals of Surgery

The idea of using magnets to manipulate the instruments in the abdominal cavity was formulated after Dr. Cadeddu watched a television show featuring teens who used magnets to hold studs on their lips to avoid getting their lips pierced.

Currently, laparoscopic instruments are inserted via “ports”, which are fixed on the abdominal wall. They become the fulcrum (pivot point) for all the instruments that are inserted. Therefore, the instruments can only approach an organ from one direction through any given port.

MAGS depend on instruments that are anchored on the INSIDE of the abdominal wall by magnets on the OUTSIDE. The pivot point can be changed by changing the position of the anchor. That gives greater flexibility to approach organs.

Besides that, it reduces the number of ports that need to be used to introduce instruments. I would imagine that one port might be all that’s necessary to introduce all the instruments you need for an operation. That would translate into fewer scars and less pain.

Perhaps this could be used together with N.O.T.E.S. to enable operations to be performed more ergonomically. Slowly but surely, technology will change the way we operate.

*Ahem* did I say “slowly”? …