Jeannette Y. Wick, RPh, MBA, FASCP

In a recent survey, physicians identified peer-reviewed journal articles, continuing medical education, evidence-based guidelines, and national experts as the most useful sources of information to stay current on therapeutic advances.

Although the healthcare community's understanding of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis under stress is fairly good, one point has baffled researchers.

When patients with primary hypothyroidism report weight gain, most clinicians understandably believe that initiating appropriate thyroid hormone treatment will reverse the symptom.

Since removing the abnormal glands through parathyroidectomy (PTx) is the sole curative intervention for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), a team of researchers from the Section of Endocrine Surgery at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles recently tracked trends in the frequency and quality of PTx.

As the bioactive fatty acids in milk have been tentatively linked to anti-inflammatory and improved metabolic effects, its calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium content may lower blood pressure and alleviate cardiometabolic syndrome.

Since many patients with night eating syndrome (NES) believe they will not fall back asleep until they ingest a full meal, it's no surprise that NES is associated with obesity and metabolic abnormalities.

Thanks to better anesthetics, new surgical techniques, and more consistent anticoagulant use to prevent venous thromboembolism, mortality after total hip replacement surgery is rare. Nevertheless, a patient's risk of death briefly increases following the procedure.

An endocrinologist from the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland discusses the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, outlining the reasons why clinicians should target inflammation when treating diabetics.

When patients with diabetes or metabolic syndrome experience acute cardiac events, the subject of stents often arises.

The patients who are most likely to develop a hospital-acquired condition after bariatric surgery are precisely those who stand to benefit the most from undergoing the procedure.

Out of all possible factors, trauma is the single largest cause of death among Americans aged 46 years or younger.

Although hospitals routinely implement peer review processes to ensure that physicians are meeting the prevailing standards of care, the procedure has been associated with controversy.

Although valve replacement is indicated when aortic valve stenosis (AS) is severe, experts have struggled with crafting evidence-based recommendations in the presence of mild or moderate AS, which has led to inconsistent practices and surgical guidelines.

Although the Caprini Thrombosis Risk Assessment Tool is widely used and well validated, many surgeons struggle to implement it appropriately and accurately when automated calculators are unavailable.

European regulators recently approved alemtuzumab to treat active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, but the US Food and Drug Administration denied the drug for that indication last year.

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients who experience pain, cosmetic deformity, or impending respiratory compromise can benefit from spinal surgery.

By emphasizing early postoperative mobilization alongside mandatory venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk stratification and concurrent electronic prophylaxis recommendations, hospitals can significantly reduce the likelihood of VTE complications among surgical patients.

Although shoulder replacement is less common than hip or knee replacement, aging Baby Boomers are undergoing the surgery at increasing rates, and one of the unintended, challenging consequences is deep infection.

Although clinicians are increasingly forced to face the 3-headed monster of comorbid diabetes, sleep disturbance, and pain, the healthcare community is only beginning to understand how the conditions overlap.

Although patients who would have been considered high risk 10 years ago can now successfully undergo percutaneous cardiac intervention, those with severe sclerotic lesions in the ascending aorta still present a challenge to surgeons.

Injured workers and bystanders often suffer oily wounds in accidents that must be cleaned prior to surgery.

Failing to produce physiologically appropriate concentrations of testosterone and/or normal amounts of sperm can affect men in profound ways, depending on the causes and scope of their condition.

When accidents result in the loss of fingertips, surgeons are often called in to determine whether reattachment is possible and, more importantly, whether hand function can be restored.

After examining the failures of parenteral nutrition, researchers have found starvation may promote cell recycling by inducing detoxification and autophagy - a survival mechanism that recycles intracellular nutrients like toxic protein aggregates and damaged organelles.

Severe coronary calcification is an independent predictor of worse prognosis in obstructive coronary artery disease patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

The newer non-ergoline-derived dopaminergic agents appear to cause only minimal endocrine effects when used to treat idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

The high volume of distal radius procedures combined with an elevated risk for adverse outcomes such as malunion, loss of radial length, inclination, and volar or dorsal angulation make surgeries in the forearm ripe for malpractice claims.

When it comes to hospital admissions, hip fractures outnumber all other orthopedic injuries, with more than 300,000 Americans breaking a hip annually and requiring 24-hour care post-surgery.

Although many studies have found Crohn's disease (CD) patients are more likely to smoke than the general population, only a few have examined CD prevalence as it relates to regional smoking rates.

Although healthcare professionals tend to believe women are more concerned about the cosmetics of scarring than men, a study published online in the American Journal of Men's Health has uncovered exactly how men feel about their scars.