An esophageal stent is a flexible mesh tube, approximately 2cm (3/4 inch) wide, and is placed through the constricted area of your esophagus (food tube) to allow food and beverages to pass from your mouth to your stomach for digestion and absorption of nutrients.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) affect millions of people each year. The most common STDs are gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis. While even thinking about STDs and whether you may have one is scary, knowing the facts can make a big difference in your long-term health. Here is what you need to know:

People who are sexually active with multiple partners and are not using barrier protection are at most risk. Teenagers are a large part of this group, because they dont always practice safe sex and they are more likely to have multiple partners. It is recommended that women who are sexually active with multiple partners get screened yearly or immediately after they have engaged in unprotected sex. If you discover that you have an STD, both you and your partner would most likely be treated with antibiotics.

Gonorrhea
Approximately 350,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported to the CDC in 2006, but because not everyone is getting tested for STDs, experts believe the actual numbers are twice that.

The symptoms for gonorrhea are burning with urination, abnormal discharge or pelvic pain. Pelvic pain indicates a very severe infection. Untreated gonorrhea can lead to a serious infection as the disease may spread to a womans fallopian tubes and cause infertility.

Chlamydia
There were 1,000,000 cases of chlamydia reported to the CDC in 2006; experts think the actual rate of infection is as high as 2,000,000 cases.

Chlamydia is often called the silent disease because many people with chlamydia have no symptoms. Chlamydia can affect the urethra, the vagina, the cervix and the fallopian tubes. Symptoms include burring with urination, abnormal discharge and pelvic pain. If you are experiencing any of these systems you should see your doctor to determine if you have chlamydia. Women with chlamydia who arent treated are likely to develop pelvic inflammatory disease. Pelvic inflammatory disease occurs when the infection spreads and causes scarring to the uterus and fallopian tubes. Untreated chlamydia can result in infertility.

Trichomoniasis
Trichomoniasis is the most common STD. About 7 million women and men have trichomoniasis. Women who have trichomoniasis will often experience a frothy yellow or green discharge coming from their vagina. But some people wont have any symptoms.

Understanding STDs, what causes them, and how to treat them will help you stay in control of your health.

Three to five years after gastric bypass surgery, some patients start to regain weight because the size of their stoma (the opening at the bottom of the stomach pouch) or their stomach pouch itself has increased. This can keep you from feeling full after small meals.

To resolve this problem, our surgeons use new surgical tools to create and suture folds into the pouch, reducing its volume and at the stoma to decrease its diameter. The surgeon performs the procedure entirely through the mouth -- inserting an endoscope under heavy sedation -- so there are no external incisions into the body.

Current treatment is a combination of pegylated interferon-alpha-2a or pegylated interferon-alpha-2b (brand names Pegasys or PEG-Intron) and the antiviral drug ribavirin for a period of 24 or 48 weeks, depending on hepatitis C virus genotype. In a large multicenter randomized control study among genotype 2 or 3 infected patients (NORDymanIC),[35] patients achieving HCV RNA below 1000 IU/mL by day 7 who were treated for 12 weeks demonstrated similar cure rates as those treated for 24 weeks.[36][37]

Pegylated interferon-alpha-2a plus ribavirin may increase sustained virological response among patients with chronic hepatitis C as compared to pegylated interferon-alpha-2b plus ribavirin according to a systematic review of randomized controlled trials .[38] The relative benefit increase was 14.6%. For patients at similar risk to those in this study (41.0% had sustained virological response when not treated with pegylated interferon alpha 2a plus ribavirin), this leads to an absolute benefit increase of 6%. About 16.7 patients must be treated for one to benefit (number needed to treat = 16.7; click here [39] to adjust these results for patients at higher or lower risk of sustained virological response). However, this study's results may be biased due to uncertain temporality of association, selective dose response.

Treatment is generally recommended for patients with proven hepatitis C virus infection and persistently abnormal liver function tests.

Treatment during the acute infection phase has much higher success rates (greater than 90%) with a shorter duration of treatment; however, this must be balanced against the 15-40% chance of spontaneous clearance without treatment (see Acute Hepatitis C section above).

Those with low initial viral loads respond much better to treatment than those with higher viral loads (greater than 400,000 IU/mL). Current combination therapy is usually supervised by physicians in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology or infectious disease.

The treatment may be physically demanding, particularly for those with a prior history of drug or alcohol abuse. It can qualify for temporary disability in some cases. A substantial proportion of patients will experience a panoply of side effects ranging from a 'flu-like' syndrome (the most common, experienced for a few days after the weekly injection of interferon) to severe adverse events including anemia, cardiovascular events and psychiatric problems such as suicide or suicidal ideation. The latter are exacerbated by the general physiological stress experienced by the patient.

Virtual Ports, Ltd. (http://www.virtual-ports.com) is a medical device company developing and marketing instruments to improve minimally invasive laparoscopic procedures.
The EndoGrab retraction system reduces the number of ports needed for surgery by eliminating the need for traditional hand held retraction. For the surgeon, this simple solution results in the need for less auxiliary personnel, a decreased overall surgery cost, and more control over the surgery. The EndoGrab also offers added benefit to the patient who will experience less post-operative discomfort and scarring.

The EndoGrab is an internally anchored, hands-free retracting device that is introduced at the start of surgery through a 5mm trocar by means of a proprietary Applier tool. The Surgeon uses the Applier to attach the EndoGrab to both the organ requiring retraction and to the internal abdominal wall, thereby removing the organ from the operative field. The Applier is then removed and the port is free for use by other instruments.
3D video animation produced by Virtual Point Multimedia (http://virtual-point.com)

IVC filter is placed to prevent fatal Pulmonary Embolism due to Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT). This particular patient had extensive DVT of Ilio-Femoral veins leading to massive swelling of left lower limb. The IVC filter was inserted via the Right Femoral Vein. This case was the first IVC filter placement of North Bengal and adjoining areas.

New York Plastic Surgeon, Carlin Vickery, MD (http://www.5thavesurgery.com) performs a CoolSculpting by Zeltiq procedure.

A NYC patient in this video explains her interest in the CoolSculpting procedure and discusses her experience on camera while receiving this Zeltiq treatment.

Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder and affects people of all ages Epilepsy means the same thing as "seizure disorders" Epilepsy is characterized by unpredictable seizures and can cause other health problems Epilepsy is a spectrum condition with a wide range of seizure types and control varying from person-to-person Public perception and misunderstanding of epilepsy causes challenges often worse than the seizures

From across the room, using controls and pedals—pediatric surgeons at Golisano Children’s Hospital are now able to operate on patients without even touching them. “It allows performances of deep surgeries in the pelvis or abdomen through tiny, little incisions as opposed to a traditional, large incision to get access to the areas where urologists often operate,” explained Dr. Rahman Abd-El-Barr, a pediatric urologist with Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.

The DaVinci robot is a robotic platform that allows surgeons to do minimally invasive surgery, leaving patients with smaller incisions and a quicker recovery. “This is important because it allows us to minimize recovery time, pain, bleeding with surgery, and especially with kids, it helps them to get back on their feet right away,” he said.

So when high school athlete, Reagan Rebeor found out she needed to have kidney surgery, she decided to have it robotically. “Thankfully, I did that because if not, I would have had a long scar down my stomach instead of small holes, small incisions. I had pain for three days, three or four days. Then after that, I was fine,” she said.

While it’s not an option for all pediatric surgeries, doctors say it can be very beneficial for teenage and adult patients needing reconstructive surgery. An option that allows patients a quicker and easier recovery.


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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.

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Scleroderma and systemic sclerosis

A brief demonstration of the different types of epileptic seizures based on the International Classification of Epileptic Seizures.

Treating osteoporosis with bisphosphonates, particularly for more than five years, has been linked to some side effects, including atypical femur fractures. Osteoporosis medications are supposed to prevent bone breaks. But if they are taken for too long, the opposite can happen. This video highlights what you need to know as a healthcare professional to educate patients

A brief screening examination should be conducted checking the face, eyes, mouth, chest, abdomen, spine and limbs to exclude major abnormalities. A strong cry and a widespread pink blush over the face and body are good signs that all is well. Some children may be born with ambiguous genitalia. Ambiguous genitalia is a medical emergency and requires urgent assessment by a paediatrician. If you have sufficient clinical experience, an orogastric tube should be passed when the neonate's mother has suffered polyhydramnios. This excludes oesophageal atresia.

Fracture of meta-diaphyseal junction of the fifth metatarsal of the foot

It sounds like you're questioning whether or not your water may have broken, and this can actually be a hard thing for a lot of women to tell. Usually if your water breaks, it's just a trickle of fluid, and you're afraid to admit it to anyone because you think you peed your pants. And it is normal to pee your pants when you're pregnant because the bladder is right below the uterus, and if the baby moves just right, it might kick out a little bit of urine. So if you feel a trickle or a little tiny gush of fluid, what you want to do is put a pad or a pantie-liner on after going to the bathroom and emptying your bladder, and wait an hour and see if fluid continues to come out. And if it does, then you're not having bladder leakage issues - your water is probably broken.

Dr. Arthur Handal explains the differences patients can expect when their surgeon chooses to use either a needle or a cannula to inject facial fillers.

The video is about taking care of your plaster cast and the after care. What you should do if you have a problem. Your questions answered.

Shoulder dystocia is a specific case of obstructed labour whereby after the delivery of the head, the anterior shoulder of the infant cannot pass below, or requires significant manipulation to pass below, the pubic symphysis. It is diagnosed when the shoulders fail to deliver shortly after the fetal head. Shoulder dystocia is an obstetric emergency, and fetal demise can occur if the infant is not delivered, due to compression of the umbilical cord within the birth canal. It occurs in approximately 0.3-1% of vaginal births. Contemporary management of shoulder dystocia requires a calm operator and a well-thought-out plan of action. It is imperative that if not already present, help is summoned immediately after shoulder dystocia is recognized. This help may include additional nursing staff, an anesthesiologist, a pediatrician or neonatologist and an additional obstetrician or midwife. Future coordination may demonstrate that rapid response teams are best suited to attend to this emergency.