Jeannette Y. Wick, RPh, MBA, FASCP

Acromegaly, although rare, has classic and well-known symptoms. Notwithstanding these well-known signs, patients often seek diagnoses for several years after their first symptoms. Early diagnosis can prevent long-term comorbidity and premature death in patients with acromegaly

A whopping 22 million people worldwide have Type 1 diabetes. Insulin therapy, while necessary, is associated with more than 40 hypoglycemic episodes annually for the average T1DM patient, and can lead to weight gain, which increases cardiovascular risks. A recent study looked at whether non-insulin therapy could also help treat this patient population

Cushing’s disease, caused by excessive adrenocorticotropic hormone production from a pituitary adenoma, is rare and can be difficult for non-endocrinologists to diagnose. As it can cause other serious conditions getting a diagnosis as quickly as possible can be critical for the overall health of patients.

Social media is a continuation of (or surrogate for) surgery’s frequent morbidity and mortality conferences. Surgery as a specialty thrives on discussion and comparison.

A recent study showed that a large number of surgeons in the United States are reaching retirement age with no plans to put down their scalpel. What this can mean to the patients they treat has yet to be determined.

Emergencies that send patients rolling into the surgical suite are high risk situations. Epidemiologists in the United Kingdom indicate that approximately half of all surgeries are considered emergency in nature. More concerning is that these surgeries are associated with 80% of surgical deaths. Prompt and informed decision-making has been shown to improve emergency surgical outcomes.

As the name suggests cardiac rupture can be a very serious condition with potentially fatal results if not treated quickly and effectively.

Intestinal transplantation can be the last resort for patients suffering from intestinal failure or other difficult conditions. Finding ways to make the procedure more effective can help more patients return to a higher quality of life.

Being discharged from oncology care after treatment for breast cancer face concerns about the future. New guidelines look to provide a clearer picture for the years after original treatments.

Ideally, patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, or obesity would take steps to address lifestyle factors. Often, their treatment teams are disappointed when these patients fail either to improve their diets or make healthy changes.

Gender dysphoria--a discrepancy between an individual's anatomic sex assigned at birth and the gender he or she identifies with--creates considerable internal distress. Affected individuals report strong desires to live as their preferred gender.

Despite research into several potential contraceptive methods for men more work remains to be done to find effective methods that could be introduced to the market.

Muslims engage in an obligatory, month-long, sunrise-to-sunset fast once a year during Ramadan. In 2005, the American Diabetes Association developed recommendations for managing diabetes during Ramadan. They updated the recommendations in 2010, and this document has become one of their more popular publications.

When patients who are socioeconomically deprived develop diabetes, the course of their illness is usually more complicated than that of patients who have better resources. Many of these patients have high levels of mental illness, multiple comorbidities, and unmet needs.

Readmissions are a concern and a dilemma for hospitals across the nation as the federal government docks facilities when patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. It has caused a surge in research about the causes of readmission and strategies to avoid them.

What impact does adult spinal deformity really have on a patient's lives? A recent study aimed to answer this very question.

Studying new approaches to address organ donor shortage shows some positive results for uncontrolled donation after circulatory determination of death.

A recent study compared outcomes following surgery to release of the first branch of the lateral plantar nerve with or without calcaneal drilling for resistant plantar fasciitis.

Researchers from four leading surgical centers investigated the hypothesis that hepatitis C infection increases risk of adverse outcomes after lower-extremity total joint arthroplasty.

The MELD (Model for End-stage Liver Disease) scoring system was developed to decrease access disparity for patients who need a liver transplant. Despite its implementation, large geographic disparities exist in the likelihood of either being removed from the transplant list due to progressive disease or actually receiving a transplant.

Four trends—increased use of preoperative MRI, increased awareness of genetic predisposition, celebrities’ well-publicized mastectomy choices, and patient preference—have increased the likelihood that surgeons will perform contralateral prophylactic mastectomy.

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is a global initiative protocol to help patients recover as quickly as possible after major surgery.

Between 1997 and 2014, the annual number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States increased by more than 274%. Plastic surgeons performed the vast majority of those procedures on women, although the number of men undergoing cosmetic procedures increased somewhat. This suggests that plastic surgeons could do a better job of advertising to male patients.

Many American associate plastic surgery with the procedures they see on reality television, and this perception may limit plastic surgeons’ scope of practice.

Many guidelines recommend transfusion if the patient's hemoglobin (Hb) level falls to 7 to 8 g/dL, but some researchers think that using a fixed trigger point may be deleterious to patients.

What if exercise could prevent dementia? A growing body of observational (but not interventional) research suggests that physical activity seems to be associated with vigorous cognitive aging.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the most common hepatic pathology in developed nations. Public health officials are worried, as NAFLD increases the likelihood of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease.

Researchers recently published a study that examined patients' activity level and health-related quality of life after lateral unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.

Most surgeons agree that recovery and survivorship after total hip replacement may be linked to various implant's characteristics, especially fixation technique and bearing surface type.

In non-diabetic patients, researchers have shown sirolimus-eluting stents to be more effective than paclitaxel-eluting stents, leading to better clinical outcomes. Some researchers believe that T2DM attenuates the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. This could influence the choice of stents, and has created a controversy.