Anyone who is considering surgery, whether bunion surgery or brain surgery, has a potentially stressful serious decision to make. It is important that you, as a patient considering surgery, make the right decision. By asking the right questions, and with a little footwork (no pun intended) you should be able to find a well qualified bunion surgeon who can help you, correct the bunion, relieve your pain, and get you back to all the activities that help you enjoy life on your feet.

I’ll start with the qualification that I am a bunion surgeon myself. What qualifies me to write this article is not that I perform this surgery, but that I have been awarded a United States Patent for an instrument and technique which I invented to to simplify complicated bunion surgery. I have also published original research in medical journals teaching other foot surgeons how to reduce or eliminate pain after bunion surgery. My research has been presented in multiple countries where I have been invited to lecture.

Having said that, there are many doctors in virtually every area of the United States who are qualified to perform your bunion surgery. The goal is to help you discern the real qualifications from deceptive ones. This way, you will be able to determine for yourself, whether or not your surgeon is likely provide you the outcome you want…getting back to enjoying your life with no more bunions.

Board Qualification
This is actually the area where most of the deception lies. The surgeons with the most hours of training and most extensive board qualification testing are affiliated with the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. There are other “board certifications” such as the American Board of Foot Surgery and the American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry. While the other boards “sound official,” they are rarely accepted as proof of competence by hospital committees.

Training
Your surgeon should have three years of foot and ankle surgical training in residency after medical school. The more training, the more experience with a wide range of surgical techniques.

Research
Making certain your surgeon has experience with medical research, (particular in the areas of your particular problem) will ensure that he/she is interested in finding ways to perform better. What separates the leaders from the followers is research. The leaders are always out in front and aware of the latest advances in technique.

Awards
Less than 1% of all surgeons will have won awards for advancing the field of surgery. If you find one, you have a winner for sure. Research the practitioner’s website to see what credentials they post.

Creativity
Surgery is a science and an art. A good trait in a surgeon is one who looks for innovative ways to solve problems. If you can, find a surgeon who has invented a surgical instrument and patented techniques that improve surgical outcomes.

Authority
It is no coincidence that the word “authority” starts with “author.” Those that write books, publish articles in medical journals and use their writing skills to educate other surgeons always stay on top of their game. All you need to do is search the surgeon’s name on Google. A doctor who plays an active roll in his profession will have many listings.

Surgery should be a great experience because it will be the start of your recovery, and the start of a new more active, more enjoyable life. Spend time researching the person you select for your surgery and it will be time well spent.

This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_681616_23.html

If you are scheduled for breast surgery (biopsy, lumpectomy or mastectomy) or you are undergoing post-surgical breast cancer treatment, hypnosis is an excellent complementary therapy that can enhance the positive effects of various therapies.* Using hypnotherapy in combination with your medical breast cancer treatment will make you feel more empowered and in control of your care, and it will help you maximize your overall wellness.

The breast is a vital part of the female body; it’s shape, size and perception affects the self-esteem and confidence of a woman. This perhaps is the reason for the surge in the number of women going for breast enlargement surgery, clinically known as Augmentation Mamoplasty, in recent times.

Often due to pregnancy and/ or aging, patients wish to have their breasts lifted back to where they originally came from. There are a number of techniques used to raise a drooping breast gland, but they will generally involve removing tissue from the top of the breast in order to ‘pull’ the breast back up (similar to a facelift).

In some cases a patient who has had breast surgery for cancer may need to under go radiotherapy afterwards and this is particular true for those who have either a lumpectomy or Segmentectomy surgery. This lowers the risk of that patient having their cancer returning as it will hopefully kill off the rest of cancer cells if any left after the surgery has taken place.

A breast surgeon can be found by asking a primary care physician, friends who have had breast surgery, local hospitals who have breast surgeons on staff, local medical boards that breast surgeons are part of, and breast surgery associations that recommend breast surgeons.

If you choose to have breast reduction surgery, be sure to tell your doctor about your reasons for having the surgery and inquire about the possibility of your insurance helping you with the expenses. If you are undergoing the surgery for aesthetic reasons, be very clear about the breast shape you hope to achieve once the surgery is over and you have completely healed.

Possibly the most popular type of surgery on the breast is breast enlargement surgery. Each year, more and more women who are dissatisfied with their breast size decide that they have had enough and opt for larger breasts. This type of surgery involves adding a small (or large) bag of liquid (depending on which procedure you choose) to the inside of the breast in order to make it larger and firmer.

Galactorrhea, or failure to produce breast milk, is a further complication that has been recorded following surgery, as the operation can damage both milk ducts and nerves. Fortunately, this condition usually clears up of its own accord, although instances requiring medication, or in the worst case removal of implants are on record.

One of the greatest fears about any type of surgery is that something will go wrong. This is just as true of breast surgery as any other type of invasive procedure. You can help your loved one by seeking out statistics regarding the success rates of the type of breast surgery that is about to take place.

A woman considering breast lift surgery should also wait until they are finished having children as the results of pregnancy and breastfeeding can cause breast sagging to reoccur. However, the procedure should not interfere with a woman’s ability to breastfeed. Conversely, with breast augmentation there can be a higher rate of insufficient milk supply, which can lead to poor weight gain in infants.

Women of all ages can be emotionally unsatisfied and in discomfort when their breasts are not equal to their personal ideal. Breast shape and size is an important aspect of any woman’s appearance and when unsatisfied, it can be the cause of low self-confidence and increased concerns about physical attractiveness. Breast surgery can improve the figure and can increase confidence in social and business settings. Whether a woman wants to enhance their breasts, reshape or reduce their size, there are a number of breast surgery options that will suit any women’s needs.

Breast reduction surgery is a cosmetic procedure that provides a solution for many women who have large and shapeless breasts. It is a surgical breast reduction procedure that removes excess breast tissue, recontours the breasts and repositions the nipples, for effective results. Many women who have large breast suffer from shoulder pain, lower neck or back pain and have difficulty exercising. A breast reduction procedure minimizes these problems, enhances the posture, and helps improve your overall appearance and self-esteem. A breast reduction surgeon will work with the patient on their specific situation to provide them with an appropriate solution to oversized breasts.

A popular cosmetic breast surgery for women is a breast augmentation procedure. Breast implants are frequently requested by women who either never developed what they considered enough breast or women who after pregnancy found their breasts disappeared. Breast implant surgery enhances the overall appearance of the figure by highlighting breast size and providing a more shapely body contour. Because silicone breast implants vary in shape and size a breast augmentation surgeon can provide custom shaping that suits the patients figure. Breast lift surgery is also a viable option if breast have sagged and lost shape due to ageing.  When considering undergoing breast surgery, whether breast implant surgery, breast reduction surgery or a breast lift it is worth talking to an expert for an appropriate breast treatment plan.

As much as cosmetic surgery is a personal choice and should only be undertaken if it’s something that you believe will benefit you, it could be the case that there are several other people who will notice a positive impact on their own lives after you choose to undergo surgery.

This tends to be considered truer for weight loss surgeries, where patients undergoing gastric bypasses and lap band surgeries discover a whole new lease of life when the weight begins to come off and they find they have a lot more energy. That means that not only do they benefit from better health and mobility, but their families can enjoy the advantages too.

For example, if a patient was overweight to the extent that they couldn’t play with their children in the garden or take them on days out because they’d become too exhausted, then massive weight loss can literally turn a family’s life around – as well as help ensure that children learn about exercise and develop positive habits with their parents.

But what about other surgeries that are strictly for aesthetic purposes? There’s a lot of judgement from some people about how the industry is perceived as ’shallow’ – which is simply not true. There is nothing ’shallow’ about feeling significant emotional turmoil due to the way you look. Most people have experienced feeling self-conscious at one time or another, and surely people can apply those feelings to understand what a torment it can be to be unhappy in your own skin.

Some people who were bullied when younger due to their looks can find a new life following surgery, with rhinoplasty, breast surgery or ear pinning procedures amongst the most prominent choices. Some people find that, by undergoing surgery, their libido returns and their relationship with their partner gets better and it’s normally nothing to do with the way their partner perceives their attractiveness, but has far more to do with how attractive they feel themselves after having surgery.

Aesthetic cosmetic surgery absolutely benefits the person undergoing the treatment most – and that’s the way it should be. One thing it doesn’t do, however, is harm others – so this personal choice is exactly that, personal

http://www.landauercosmeticsurgery.co.uk/

Original Source: About.com

Chinese surgeons removed a chopstick from a child’s brain this week. The 14 month old baby, Li Jingchao, fell with chopsticks in his hand, resulting in the injury.  He had to be driven 10 hours to Beijing in order to find a facility that could remove the chopstick.

The chop went up his nose and into his brain, causing a life-threatening situation.  In fact, by the time he arrived at the hospital, he had a high fever and his heart was beating irregularly.  X-rays revealed that the chopstick had penetrated 4mm into his brain.

Surgeons were able to dislodge the chopstick with only minor bleeding, and Li is expected to make a full recovery.

More about this story, including a photo.

New Studies Show Improved Ways To Prevent Infection After Surgery, as originally reported by About.com:

Two studies showed the same results this week, better infection prevention prior to surgery means less infection after surgery.

Two different methods were used, one study used an antiseptic administered nasally and the other required bathing patients with an antiseptic solution. Both methods were effective, and the antiseptic bath proved more effective than the skin prep agent that has been used in many hospital for decades.

For high risk cases, people who are at a high risk of having an infection after surgery, combining both methods may be the best way to protect the patient.

One of the doctors involved in the study made an important point, noting that infections aren’t necessarily caused by outside germs, but are often caused by the germs that live on the skin. These germs are normal and typically cause no issues, but can cause infection when they are in a surgical incision. These germs that live on the skin, called normal flora, are removed with the antiseptic bath and once removed, cannot move into the incision.

If you are concerned about infection after surgery, be sure to discuss with your surgeon the methods that they employ to prevent infection after surgery.

Identifying signs and symptoms of infection after surgery

A new study out of Washington state shows that the risks of abdominal surgery increase with age, including the risk of death after surgery. The study found that for patients 65 years of age and older, the risk of dying in the 60 days following surgery is as high as 5 percent, or 1 in 20 patients.

The risk increases with age.  For patients in their late 60s, there was a 2.5% risk of death in the two months following surgery, but that risk rose to 6% for patients in their 70s, 12.6 for patients in their 80’s, and 16.7% for those in their 90s.

It makes perfect sense that someone in their 60s has a lower risk of death than someone 30 years older, but this study may be the first to put a hard number on how much higher the risk truly is.

So what use is this information? If you or a loved one is over 60 and considering an abdominal surgery, keep in mind that all surgeries have risks and your level of risk may be higher than you realize.  If your surgery is not absolutely necessary, consider all the risks and benefits before going forward.

This article was syndicated via RSS From: http://surgery.about.com/

Operations halted by filthy scalpels.  This article, originally retrieved from eveningtimes.co.uk, explains why more than 300 surgical instruments have been returned to NHS hospitals.  Are regulations in the UK really that different from here in the US?  What about surgical technology training?  Read more about the surgical instrument recall by NHS Lanarkshire.

Original Source: EveningTimes

More than 300 surgical instruments have been returned to NHS hospitals dirty or broken by private contractors hired to sterilize them, new figures show.

The instruments, including scalpels, forceps and microscopes, have had to be returned by NHS Lanarkshire over the past year because they were unsterile or damaged, which has led to claims that operations are being cancelled because of shortages of essential equipment.

NHS Lanarkshire is one of a growing number of health boards which uses a private contractor, Synergy Health Care PLC, to clean its equipment.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has expressed concern about the practice, which it says is putting patients’ lives at risk because it can lead to operations being cancelled, often after patients have been prepped for theatre.

NHS Lanarkshire said it was unable to say how many operations had been cancelled as a result of shortages of clean equipment.

However, figures obtained using Freedom of Information legislation show that from January 2008 to September 2009, 332 instruments were returned to the contractor because they were unsterile or damaged.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian do not use private contractors. However, about one-quarter of UK hospitals now outsource all or some this work, including Grampian.

The Evening Times recently reported how 83-year-old Jemima Campbell’s hip surgery at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, was postponed twice after she had been prepped for surgery because of an apparent lack of sterile equipment.

NHS Lanarkshire blamed the incident on a tightening of hygiene procedures as a result of an increase in surgical infections earlier that month.

However, her family, who have written to Cabinet Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, claim they were told by staff that the private firm it uses to sterilise equipment was not cleaning instruments properly, resulting in them having to be returned for to the contractor.

A BMA spokeswoman said: “It is very concerning that operations may be cancelled because surgical instruments have not been cleaned properly.

“Patient safety must not be put at risk because equipment is not fit for use.

“In addition, cancelling operations will put increased pressure on waiting times.

We hope that boards will re-examine the current systems to ensure that they are delivering the standards expected of our NHS.”

All NHS hospitals used to clean their own surgical equipment in-house. But fears over hospital superbugs, the possible spread of variant CJD, the human form of ‘mad cow disease’, and growing commercialisation in the NHS means about one-quarter of hospitals have now contracted the process to outside firms, and others are planning to follow suit.

In March 2007, Aberdeenshire man Alan Paterson’s 12-hour operation to remove a blood clot was cancelled when he was already lying on a trolley and connected to monitors.

Surgeons in Aberdeen had noticed that three sets of instruments they planned to use were not sterile and so had to be discarded.

A recent study revealed that about 5000 patients every year in the UK are told their procedure can’t take place because the hospital doesn’t have the instruments.

A spokesperson for NHS Lanarkshire said: “We work very closely with Synergy, who provide decontamination services for our equipment, to continually review the level of defects.

“This is the subject of regular operational meetings to ensure that issues arising are resolved and we have robust procedures in place to monitor the delivery and storage of surgical instruments .

“Synergy process approximately 23,500 trays and sets of surgical instruments for us each month.

“This equates to 282,000 trays per year with a total of around 3,546,000 individual theatre instruments.

“The level of defects identified lie within industry standards, with 0.005% of instruments damaged or not properly cleaned”.

Despite repeated requests, no-one from Swindon-based Synergy Health Care PLC was available for comment.

pSolange Magnano, a 38 year old former Miss Argentina, died this week after having a gluteoplasty. Gluteoplasty, the surgical tightening of the buttocks often includes implants, as Magnano’s surgery did. In her case, the implants leaked, causing a massive infection and causing blood clots that caused organ failure./p

pa href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Argentine+beauty+Solange+Magnano+loses+life+nice+bottom/2290577/story.htmlRead more about Solange Magnano/a/p

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pbr class=spacer_ //pp style=”background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;”a href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/12/02/former-miss-argentina-solange-magnano-dies-gluteoplasty-butt-surgery.htm”Former Miss Argentina Solange Magnano Dies After Plastic Surgery /a originally appeared on a href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/”About.com Surgery/a on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 19:34:58./ppa href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/12/02/former-miss-argentina-solange-magnano-dies-gluteoplasty-butt-surgery.htm”Permalink/a | a href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/12/02/former-miss-argentina-solange-magnano-dies-gluteoplasty-butt-surgery.htm#gB3″Comment/a | a href=”http://surgery.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/12/02/former-miss-argentina-solange-magnano-dies-gluteoplasty-butt-surgery.htmzItl=Former Miss Argentina Solange Magnano Dies After Plastic Surgery “Email this/a/p

pRobin Williams is back on the road with his Weapons of Self Destruction comedy tour.  The tour initially started over a year ago, but was interrupted when Williams needed emergency a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://surgery.about.com/od/proceduresaz/a/HeartSurgeryHeartSurgery.htmheart surgery/a at the Cleveland Clinic./p

pWilliams, along with Bobcat Goldthwait, recently a href=http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hc#038;zu=http://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/2009/11/23/robin-williams-opens-up-about-heart-surgery/filmed an interview/a about his experience with surgery./p

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p style=margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Verdana; /pp style=”background:#f5f3ef;border: 1px solid #d5d0bf;padding:.5em;”a href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/11/23/robin-williams-restarts-comedy-tour-interrupted-by-heart-surgery.htm”Robin Williams Restarts Comedy Tour Interrupted By Heart Surgery/a originally appeared on a href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/”About.com Surgery/a on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 22:43:34./ppa href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/11/23/robin-williams-restarts-comedy-tour-interrupted-by-heart-surgery.htm”Permalink/a | a href=”http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/1hczu=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/11/23/robin-williams-restarts-comedy-tour-interrupted-by-heart-surgery.htm#gB3″Comment/a | a href=”http://surgery.about.com/gi/pages/shareurl.htm?PG=http://surgery.about.com/b/2009/11/23/robin-williams-restarts-comedy-tour-interrupted-by-heart-surgery.htmzItl=Robin Williams Restarts Comedy Tour Interrupted By Heart Surgery”Email this/a/p