FDA Report on Surgical Mesh for Treatment of Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence
FDA report: Surgical Mesh for Treatment of Women with Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence
Melanoma risks double for young indoor tanners, researchers say
You might think that it’s safer to use a tanning bed than bake yourself out in the sun. In some respects, it is … but indoor tanning isn’t entirely without its own risks. Experts say melanoma is on the rise, particularly for those under 35 who do their tanning indoors. There’s a 20 percent increased…
DetailsDriver error more common in fatal car crashes than semi-truck crashes
Driver error is cited more frequently in fatal crashes involving passenger vehicles than commercial trucks, according to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. The newest statistics, culled from driver-related factors in police accident reports during 2010, show about one-third of truck drivers involved in fatal crashes were cited, compared…
Details3 children die from taking codeine for pain after surgery, FDA warns
Parents and guardians are being cautioned of the risks of giving prescribed codeine to children after surgeries. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says three children died and another suffered a non-fatal but life-threatening case of respiratory depression, all after being given codeine as a pain reliever after surgeries to remove tonsils and/or adenoids. The…
DetailsNCCA urged to warn college football players of long-term brain injury risk
For five of the past six seasons, attendance at NCAA football games has broken records. Nearly 49.7 million attended college football games last year, according to the NCAA, which doesn’t include the 127 million who watched TV games. What the audience and, most importantly, the players themselves aren’t aware of is the potentially devastating long-term…
DetailsDrug risks to older adults ignored in clinical trials, Public Citizen says
Older adults use more medicines than younger people and also tend to experience more serious side effects, including death. Yet drug makers often exclude older adults from clinical trials, according to the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. In particular, a new analysis of four popular medications often taken by older adults – rosuvastatin (Crestor) for…
DetailsDrug, medical device trials that doctors rely on flawed, analysis shows
A new analysis concluded that many of the reports that are conducted on new drugs and medical devices come from studies conducted on a small number of patients in clinical trials with less-than-reliable methods and, often, missing data! Dr. Robert Califf of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute in Durham, N.C., told Reuters Health that these…
DetailsFDA needs to track safety of drugs on the market, watchdog group says
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration isn’t doing a very good job of tracking drugs once they’re on the market to see if they’re safe, according to the Institute of Medicine, a government watchdog group. Some drugs are put on the market despite evidence that they might have bad side effects, the IOM said, and…
DetailsMishandled drugs in clinic put patients at risk, CDC warns
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned about the risk of infection when clinics re-use injections intended for single-use only. According to MSNBC.msn.com, 10 patients in Arizona and Delaware got serious infections requiring hospitalization after they were injected with diluted drugs intended to be administered to one patient only. A nationwide shortage of…
DetailsFDA sees need to study metal hip implant effects on body
U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff have sent word to agency advisers meeting this week that there should be more and consistent tests to study the effect of metal in hip implants on surrounding body tissue. The staff said these tests might help lower high failure rates on implants made by Johnson & Johnson and…
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