Paralyzed man freely blows after implant (AP)

LONDON - after Rob Summers was paralyzed below the chest in a car accident in 2006, his doctors he would never support once again. They were wrong to do so.

Despite intensive physical therapy for three years, summers condition had not improved. Therefore, in 2009, doctors implanted an electrical Stimulator on the lining of his spinal cord to try to awaken his damaged nervous system. Within days, summers, 25, was without assistance. Months later, he disturbed his toes, moved his knees, ankles and hips and was able to take a few steps on a treadmill.

"It was the most incredible feeling," said summers, Portland, Oregon. "After not being able to move four years ago, I thought finally things could change."

Yet, despite his renewed optimism, summers can be maintained when it is not in a session with the lit pacemaker therapy, and it normally rolled in a wheelchair. Doctors are currently limiting its use of the device, made by Minneapolis Medtronic, Inc., based in several hours at a time.

His case is described in an article published Friday in the journal Lancet. The research was paid by the National Institutes of Health of United States and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

For years, some people with incomplete spinal cord injuries, who have control of their members, experienced improvements after experiments in electrically stimulating muscles. But progress had not been seen before in someone with a complete spinal cord.

"This is not a cure, but it could lead to a feature enhanced in some patients," said Gregoire Courtine, head of the experimental Neurorehabilitation at the University of Zurich. It was not bound by summers. Warned courtine summers recovery has not made a difference in the daily life of the patient and that needed more research to help paralyzed people regain enough mobility to make a difference in their normal routine.

Electrical Stimulator surgeons implanted spinal cord summers is usually used to relieve pain and can cost up to $20,000. Doctors implanted summers lower than normal, on the basis of its vertebrae.

"The pacemaker sends a general signal to the spinal cord to walk or stand," said Dr Susan Harkema, Director of research of rehabilitation in the Centre of research of injuries of the spinal cord Kentucky at Louisville and main author of the Lancet study.

Harkema and colleagues were surprised Summers was able to voluntarily move his legs. "That tells us that we can access the channels of the nervous system, which opens up a whole new avenue for us to paralysis of the address," said Harkema. She said prescribing drugs could also speed up recovery.

Dr. John McDonald, Director of the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, said that the strategy could be quickly adopted for 10-15% of paralyzed patients who could benefit. It was not bound to the summers case.

"There is no doubt that we will do this to our patients", he said. McDonald added that, since electrical stimulators are already approved for pain relief, it should not be difficult to also study to help some patients to resume movement.

For the moment, summers is approximately two hours per day of physiotherapy.

"My ultimate goal is to walk and run again," he said. "I think that anything is possible and that I will have my wheelchair one day."

Paralyzed man freely blows after implant (AP)

LONDON - after Rob Summers was paralyzed below the chest in a car accident in 2006, his doctors he would never support once again. They were wrong to do so.

Despite intensive physical therapy for three years, summers condition had not improved. Therefore, in 2009, doctors implanted an electrical Stimulator on the lining of his spinal cord to try to awaken his damaged nervous system. Within days, summers, 25, was without assistance. Months later, he disturbed his toes, moved his knees, ankles and hips and was able to take a few steps on a treadmill.

"It was the most incredible feeling," said summers, Portland, Oregon. "After not being able to move four years ago, I thought finally things could change."

Yet, despite his renewed optimism, summers can be maintained when it is not in a session with the lit pacemaker therapy, and it normally rolled in a wheelchair. Doctors are currently limiting its use of the device to several hours at a time.

His case is described in an article published Friday in the journal Lancet. The research was paid by the National Institutes of Health of United States and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

For years, some people with incomplete spinal cord injuries, who have control of their members, experienced improvements after experiments in electrically stimulating muscles. But progress had not been seen before in someone with a complete spinal cord.

"This is not a cure, but it could lead to a feature enhanced in some patients," said Gregoire Courtine, head of the experimental Neurorehabilitation at the University of Zurich. It was not bound by summers. Warned courtine summers recovery has not made a difference in the daily life of the patient and that needed more research to help paralyzed people regain enough mobility to make a difference in their normal routine.

Electrical Stimulator surgeons implanted spinal cord summers is usually used to relieve pain and can cost up to $20,000. Doctors implanted summers lower than normal, on the basis of its vertebrae.

"The pacemaker sends a general signal to the spinal cord to walk or stand," said Dr Susan Harkema, Director of research of rehabilitation in the Centre of research of injuries of the spinal cord Kentucky at Louisville and main author of the Lancet study.

Harkema and colleagues were surprised Summers was able to voluntarily move his legs. "That tells us that we can access the channels of the nervous system, which opens up a whole new avenue for us to paralysis of the address," said Harkema. She said prescribing drugs could also speed up recovery.

Dr. John McDonald, Director of the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, said that the strategy could be quickly adopted for 10-15% of paralyzed patients who could benefit. It was not bound to the summers case.

"There is no doubt that we will do this to our patients", he said. McDonald added that, since electrical stimulators are already approved for pain relief, it should not be difficult to also study to help some patients to resume movement.

For the moment, summers is approximately two hours per day of physiotherapy.

"My ultimate goal is to walk and run again," he said. "I think that anything is possible and that I will have my wheelchair one day."

___

Online:

http://www.Lancet.com

Obese persons at higher risk of Infection after surgery of the colon (HealthDay)

 obese patients at significantly increased risk for surgical infections after suffering a partial ablation or full colon, a new study concludes.

It consisted of 7,020 patients, aged 18 to 64 years who had a partial or total colectomy for cancer of the colon, diverticulitis or a inflammatory bowel disease between 2002 and 2008. Of these patients, 1 243 were obese.

The overall rate of infection of surgical was 10.3%, but the rate was higher in obese patients (14.5%) than non-obese patients (9.5%). After adjustment for a certain number of factors, the researchers calculated that obese patients were more likely to develop infections of surgical and non-obese patients of 60 per cent.

The average cost of colectomy for all patients was $ 16,399, but the average price of obese patients was approximately $295 for non-obese patients.

The researchers also found that surgical infections significantly increased the cost of the procedure. The average total cost for patients who have developed surgical infections was $31,933, compared to $14,608 for patients without infection.

Patients with surgical infections were also more average hospitalizations (9.5 days against 8.1 days) and a higher rate of readmission (27.8% vs. 6.8%) of the hospital.

"We conclude that patients undergoing colorectal surgery who develop SSIs [surgical infections], many of whom are obese, taxing the health care system,", wrote Dr. Elizabeth c. Wick, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore and his colleagues.

Of the programmes of measures incentives Surgeons of reward for costs and improving outcomes for patients must take into account that obese people are more at risk of infection, according to the authors.

Most Leukemia Patients Recover From "Chemo Brain" after transplantation: study

 A decline in memory and the fine-motor skills is common among patients undergoing a bone marrow or transplant of stem cells for the treatment of leukemia and Lymphoma, but most patients return to normal within five years, a new study.

Previous research has shown that chemotherapy drugs these patients take front of transplantation and the medications they take to prevent the rejection of the transplanted cells can affect memory and motor skills. This study was carried on how long it takes to recover from these problems, often referred to as "chemo brain."

The study included 92 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, acute leukemia, lymphoma syndrome or Myelodysplastic, in which the bone marrow does not normally occur. Patients received a (cells donated by someone else) allogeneic bone marrow or stem cell transplantation.

After treatment, the skills of memory and motor of the patients were evaluated. Most of the patients showed a substantial improvement in the neurocognitive function between one and five years after their transplant.

But deficits, described as mainly soft, persisted for five years in 42% of patients, a finding that surprised researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"We really thought the rate would be lower," study leader Karen Syrjala, Director of the Biobehavioral Sciences, said in a press release Hutchinson. "We were delighted to see that challenged substantially, but we were also surprised that so many people continue to have measurable deficits in some areas even after five years."

Further research is needed to determine the reasons for these persistent deficits, she added.

The study was published in May 2 online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Most Leukemia Patients Recover From "Chemo Brain" after transplantation

A decline in memory and the fine-motor skills is common among patients undergoing a bone marrow or transplant of stem cells for the treatment of leukemia and Lymphoma, but most patients return to normal within five years, a new study.

Previous research has shown that chemotherapy drugs these patients take front of transplantation and the medications they take to prevent the rejection of the transplanted cells can affect memory and motor skills. This study was carried on how long it takes to recover from these problems, often referred to as "chemo brain."

The study included 92 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, acute leukemia, lymphoma syndrome or Myelodysplastic, in which the bone marrow does not normally occur. Patients received a (cells donated by someone else) allogeneic bone marrow or stem cell transplantation.

After treatment, the skills of memory and motor of the patients were evaluated. Most of the patients showed a substantial improvement in the neurocognitive function between one and five years after their transplant.

But deficits, described as mainly soft, persisted for five years in 42% of patients, a finding that surprised researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"We really thought the rate would be lower," study leader Karen Syrjala, Director of the Biobehavioral Sciences, said in a press release Hutchinson. "We were delighted to see that challenged substantially, but we were also surprised that so many people continue to have measurable deficits in some areas even after five years."

Further research is needed to determine the reasons for these persistent deficits, she added.

The study was published in May 2 online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Woman revived after the heart stops at Lady Gaga concert

an evening long-awaited a Lady Gaga concert turned into a nightmare for a Tennessee woman aged 33 years, whose heart has been restarted after shutdown for five minutes when she had a cardiac arrest.

Crystal Thornton, of Lyles, Tennessee, was enjoying Act on the opening of the concert at the arena of Bridgestone in Nashville with her best friend, Christina Tugman Tuesday evening when she had a seizure, according to information provided by Vanderbilt Medical Center.

"She stopped breathing, his eyes rolled back in his head and his body began jerking movements," said Tugman. "I asked if she was OK, and it was not responding."

Tugman ran to the lobby for assistance. It took Jerry Jones, an EMT supervisor with the program of LifeFlight event medicine at Vanderbilt University, a minute more to join it.

"The patient was unconscious with no heartbeat," said Jones.

Using a portable automatic external defibrillator, Jones and other paramedics spent more than five minutes, until what they could finally get the heart of Thornton flying once again.

It was then transported to the emergency of the Vanderbilt Medical Center, where doctors immediately used therapeutic hypothermia to cool the temperature of the body of Thornton to between 93 and 86 degrees - less than the normal temperature of the body of 98.6 degrees.

Even if his heart was working again, the doctors wanted to slow traffic to prevent the death of brain cells - and, therefore, brain injury - caused by the prolonged absence of oxygen. Chilled water blankets were placed on the body and the head of Thornton, and the medical staff then used a machine to lower its body temperature for 48 hours.

"The patient has received incredible care from the moment where she experienced problems at the Bridgestone arena," said Dr. Jared McKinney, Medical Director of the event LifeFlight medicine. "It is only through a team effort coordinated that its success was possible."

After two days of therapy of cooling, temperature of the body of Thornton was slowly restored to normal. It resumed consciousness and neurologically continues to improve, according to his doctors in Nashville.

On Friday afternoon, she was in a stable, said Hospital of Tennessee State.

His cardiologist, Dr. John McPherson, stated that Thornton is a battery of tests to determine why she suffered a heart attack. He told CNN that it seems she has a hypertrophy of the heart-"a genetic condition which, unfortunately, has no warning symptoms and often results in an emergency situation as Thornton has known".

Next week, she will have surgery to put a defibrillator implantable cardioverter in his chest. The device sends electric shocks which will be automatically start if his heart begins to beat irregularly and restore normal, in the hope of preventing another heart attack.

Leigh Sims, a technician of emergency medical and Vanderbilt of medicine, the event Manager, said that the defibrillator saved the life of the woman.

"Without a DEA, this patient would not survive," said Sims. "He restored his pulse."

While she is very grateful, it is an effect of blur for Thornton. And she did not have to be able to see Lady Gaga strut and sing on stage.

"I'm so crazy, that I missed the concert," she said, according to a statement issued by the hospital.

Tugman said Friday that she was grateful to have his friend back - including after another scare Thursday night, when "suddenly she stopped breathing, his eyes restored and all these machines started to away."

"They came and he shocked, and she returned to the right, said Tugman.".