Jan 14, 2013
Proper daily nutrition is a necessary part of growth and development and usually a source of comfort and pleasure. But for many pediatric patients with congenital or acquired medical issues or behaviorally-based impairments, “Feeding problems can be a source of stress for patients, parents, family members, and may endanger the child’s overall health and development,” according to Douglas Field, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist and medical director of the Penn State Children's Hospital Feeding Program.
Sep 19, 2012
Club foot is a congenital deformity that, if left untreated, can cause lifelong disability.
Sep 18, 2012
With the prevalence of osteoporosis expected to rise in the coming years, early recognition and management of bisphosphonate-related atypical femur fractures will become increasingly important.
Critical-size bone defects are challenging to bridge and successfully treat. A research team at Penn State Bone and Joint Institute, led by Henry J. Donahue, PhD, postdoctoral fellow Alayna Loiselle, PhD, and Akhlesh Lakhtakia, PhD, the Charles Godfrey Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Pennsylvania State University, is exploring new biotechnologies to enhance bone integration in such patients.
Sep 17, 2012
For young adult patients engaged in highly demanding competitive athletics or recreational sports, such as soccer, basketball, field hockey, and skiing, the cumulative risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, over time, is high. Young women are at particular risk, with two to eight times the incidence of ACL injury compared to men.
Aug 20, 2012
Major advances in the development of endoscopic devices and techniques over the past fifteen years have introduced endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) as standard of care for the safe and effective removal and/or definitive staging of mucosal lesions of the esophagus, stomach, duodenum and colon, often eliminating major surgery as first-line management.
The pre-treatment nutritional status of patients with acute abdominal injury, or chronic gastrointestinal (GI) illness plays a large role in post-surgical course of recovery. Likewise, their ability to obtain nutrition after treatment significantly impacts long-term health outcomes and quality of life.
One of the greatest challenges facing patients who require a liver transplant is surviving the wait for a donor organ. Each year, nearly 16,000 patients in the United States are on the liver transplant waiting list, according to UNOS; yet only between 5,000 and 6,000 receive a transplant from a deceased donor.
May 29, 2012
Fractures of the posteromedial tibial plateau are challenging to treat, owing to their complexity and unfamiliar surgical approach. J. Spence Reid, MD, Penn State Bone and Joint Institute explains, “This fracture pattern may occur as part of a fracture-dislocation in which it is often associated with an ACL tear, or as part of a bicondylar tibial plateau fracture.”
May 24, 2012
Among the nearly one thousand adult foot and ankle surgeries performed annually at Penn State Bone and Joint Institute, Paul J. Juliano, MD, professor of foot and ankle orthopaedics, noticed what seemed to be a higher than average rate of post-surgical wound complications among patients with hypothyroidism. Juliano observed, “Complications in these patients included not only infection, but also wound dehiscence,” a problem not commonly seen following foot and ankle surgery, marked by opening of the wound along natural or surgical suture lines.
