Common Benign Pain Syndromes--Symptoms and Etiology:
1. Non-specific musculoskeletal pain: This is the most common cause of back pain. Patients present with lumbar area pain that does not radiate, is worse with activity, and improves with rest. There may or may not be a clear history of antecedent over use or increased activity. The pain is presumably caused by irritation of the paraspinal muscles, ligaments or vertebral body articulations. However, a precise etiology is difficulty to identify.
2. Radicular Symptoms: Often referred to as "sciatica," this is a pain syndrome caused by irritation of one of the nerve roots as it exits the spinal column. The root can become inflamed as a result of a compromised neuroforamina (e.g. bony osteophyte that limits size of the opening) or a herniated disc (the fibrosis tears, allowing the propulsus to squeeze out and push on the adjacent root). Sometimes, it's not precisely clear what has lead to the irritation. In any case, patient's report a burning/electric shock type pain that starts in the low back, traveling down the buttocks and along the back of the leg, radiating below the knee. The most commonly affected nerve roots are L5 and S1.
3. Spinal Stenosis: Pain starts in the low back and radiates down the buttocks bilaterally, continuing along the backs of both legs. Symptoms are usually worse with walking and improve when the patient bends forward. Patient's may describe that they relieve symptoms by leaning forward on their shopping carts when walking in a super market. This is caused by spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the central canal that holds the spinal cord. The limited amount of space puts pressure on the nerve roots when the patient walks, causing the symptoms (referred to as neurogenic claudication). Spinal stenosis can be congenital or develop over years as a result of djd of the spine. As opposed to true claudication (pain in calfs/lower legs due to arterial insufficiency), pain resolves very quickly when person stops walking and assumes upright position. Also, peripheral pulses should be normal.
4. Mixed symptoms: In some patients, more then one process may co-exist, causing elements of more then one symptom syndrome to co-exist.

This video demonstrates how use a commercially-prepared "dip-stick" to test a random urine specimen for the presence of protein or glucose.

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Hypoparathyroidism is an uncommon condition in which your body secretes abnormally low levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH). PTH plays a key role in regulating and maintaining a balance of your body's levels of two minerals — calcium and phosphorus. The low production of PTH in hypoparathyroidism leads to abnormally low ionized calcium levels in your blood and bones and to an increase of serum phosphorus. Treatment for hypoparathyroidism consists of taking supplements to normalize your calcium and phosphorus levels. Depending on the cause of your hypoparathyroidism, you'll likely need to take supplements for life.

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Anatomy of The Superficial Dissection of The Upper and Lower Limbs

Visit or call us at https://www.paintreatmentspecialists.com/Pain-Management-Physician/ (877) 415-9620 for more information on minimally invasive treatments for pain management. In this video, you will learn everything you need to know in preparation for you pain treatment consult with one of our Board Certified and Ivy League Trained pain management doctors, at our pain clinic.

A Bone scan or bone scintigraphy is a nuclear scanning test to find certain abnormalities in bone which are triggering the bone's attempts to heal. It is primarily used to help diagnose a number of conditions relating to bones, including: cancer of the bone or cancers that have spread (metastasized) to the bone, locating some sources of bone inflammation (e.g. bone pain such as lower back pain due to a fracture), the diagnosis of fractures that may not be visible in traditional X-ray images, and the detection of damage to bones due to certain infections and other problems.

Nuclear medicine bone scans are one of a number of methods of bone imaging, all of which are used to visually detect bone abnormalities. Such imaging studies include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray computed tomography (CT) and in the case of 'bone scans' nuclear medicine. However, a nuclear bone scan is a functional test, which means it measures an aspect of bone metabolism, which most other imaging techniques cannot. The nuclear bone scan competes with the FDG-PET scan in seeing abnormal metabolism in bones, but it is considerably less expensive.

Nuclear bone scans are not to be confused with the completely different test often termed a "bone density scan," DEXA or DXA, which is a low exposure X-ray test measuring bone density to look for osteoporosis and other diseases where bones lose mass, without any bone re-building activity. The nuclear medicine scan technique is sensitive to areas of unusual bone re-building activity because the radiopharmaceutical is taken up by osteoblast cells which build bone. The technique therefore is sensitive to fractures and bone reaction to infections and bone tumors, including tumor metastases to bones, because all these pathologies trigger bone osteoblast activity. The bone scan is not sensitive to osteoporosis or multiple myeloma in bones, and therefore other techniques must be used to assess bone abnormalities from these diseases.

Biliary atresia is a rare disease of the liver and bile ducts that occurs in infants. Symptoms of the disease appear or develop about two to eight weeks after birth. Cells within the liver produce liquid called bile. Bile helps to digest fat.

Breast reconstruction 3D Animation
on Friday, December 17, 2010




The primary part of the procedure can often be carried out immediately following the mastectomy. As with many other surgeries, patients with significant medical comorbidities (high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes) and smokers are higher-risk candidates. Surgeons may choose to perform delayed reconstruction to decrease this risk. Patients expected to receive external beam radiation as part of their adjuvant treatment are also commonly considered for delayed autologous reconstruction due to significantly higher complication rates with tissue expander-implant techniques in those patients. Breast reconstruction is a large undertaking that usually takes multiple operations. Sometimes these follow-up surgeries are spread out over weeks or months. If an implant is used, the individual runs the same risks and complications as those who use them for breast augmentation but has higher rates of capsular contracture (tightening or hardening of the scar tissue around the implant) and revisional surgeries. Outcomes based research on quality of life improvements and psychosocial benefits associated with breast reconstruction served as the stimulus in the United States for the 1998 Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act which mandated health care payer coverage for breast and nipple reconstruction, contralateral procedures to achieve symmetry, and treatment for the sequelae of mastectomy. This was followed in 2001 by additional legislation imposing penalties on noncompliant insurers. Similar provisions for coverage exist in most countries worldwide through national health care programs. There are many methods for breast reconstruction. The two most common are: * Tissue Expander - Breast implants This is the most common technique used in worldwide. The surgeon inserts a tissue expander, a temporary silastic implant, beneath a pocket under the pectoralis major muscle of the chest wall. The pectoral muscles may be released along its inferior edge to allow a larger, more supple pocket for the expander at the expense of thinner lower pole soft tissue coverage. The use of acellular human or animal dermal grafts have been described as an onlay patch to increase coverage of the implant when the pectoral muscle is released, which purports to improve both functional and aesthtic outcomes of implant-expander breast reconstruction. o In a process that can take weeks or months, saline solution is percutaneously injected to progressively expand the overlaying tissue. Once the expander has reached an acceptable size, it may be removed and replaced with a more permanent implant. Reconstruction of the areola and nipple are usually performed in a separate operation after the skin has stretched to its final size. * Flap reconstruction The second most common procedure uses tissue from other parts of the patient's body, such as the back, buttocks, thigh or abdomen. This procedure may be performed by leaving the donor tissue connected to the original site to retain its blood supply (the vessels are tunnelled beneath the skin surface to the new site) or it may be cut off and new blood supply may be connected. o The latissimus dorsi muscle flap is the donor tissue available on the back. It is a large flat muscle which can be employed without significant loss of function. It can be moved into the breast defect still attached to its blood supply under the arm pit (axilla). A latissimus flap is usually used to recruit soft-tissue coverage over an underlying implant. Enough volume can be recruited occasionally to reconstruct small breasts without an implant. o Abdominal flaps The abdominal flap for breast reconstruction is the TRAM flap or its technically distinct variants of microvascular "perforator flaps" like the DIEP/SIEP flaps. Both use the abdominal tissue between the umbilicus and the

Emergency Medicine Importance If London Was Occupied

Heart surgery in Thailand is world class and affordable.

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A biopsy is a diagnostic test that involves collecting small pieces of tissue, usually through a needle, for examination with a microscope. A kidney biopsy can help in forming a diagnosis and in choosing the best course of treatment.

The ABC's of Adult CPR emergency video

This shows an animated procedure for Interventional Cardiologists in injecting stemcells.

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An endoscopy showing celiac disease

What happens to our bodies after we die?

A rotator cuff tear is a common injury, especially in sports like baseball or tennis, or in jobs like painting or cleaning windows. It usually happens over time from normal wear and tear, or if you repeat the same arm motion over and over. But it also can happen suddenly if you fall on your arm or lift something heavy. Your rotator cuff is a group of four muscles and tendons that stabilize your shoulder joint and let you lift and rotate your arms. There are two kinds of rotator cuff tears. A partial tear is when the tendon that protects the top of your shoulder is frayed or damaged. The other is a complete tear. That’s one that goes all the way through the tendon or pulls the tendon off the bone.