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Overused Medical Tests, Therapies Detailed By Major Doctor Groups

Don't be afraid to question your doctor and ask, "Do I really need that?" That's the advice from leading medical groups who came up dozens of tests and treatments that physicians too often prescribe when they shouldn't. No worrisome stroke signs? Then don't screen a healthy person for a clogged neck artery, the family physicians say. It could lead to risky surgery for a blockage too small to matter.

 

Sweden hails uterus transplants

Uterus

Two Swedish women may be able to bear children using the wombs which carried them, doctors say, hailing the world's first mother-daughter uterus transplants.

 

Doctors and parents speak different languages

Doctors

New research sheds light on what clinicians don’t worry about enough: the fact that doctors and patients don’t always communicate well, even in dire situations, writes Dr. Tyeese Gaines of theGrio.com.

 

Magnets saves baby from big surgery

Babies

Experts have warned about the dangers of kids swallowing magnets. But in an experimental surgery, magnets actually saved a newborn's life... A blockage somewhere inside Patrick's intestines was preventing him from moving his bowels. Doctors needed to fix it before his intestines ruptured and he died.

 

Girl's stem cells used to make her a new vein

For the first time doctors have successfully transplanted a vein grown with a patient's own stem cells, another example of scientists producing human body parts in the lab. In this case, the patient was a 10-year-old girl in Sweden who was suffering from a severe vein blockage to her liver. Last March, the girl's doctors decided to make her a new blood vessel to bypass the blocked vein instead of using one of her own or considering a liver transplant.

 

Study: 'Smart bomb' drug attacks breast cancer

Breast Cancer Treatment: Smart Bomb

Doctors have successfully dropped the first "smart bomb" on breast cancer, using a drug to deliver a toxic payload to tumor cells while leaving healthy ones alone.

 

Report: Al-Qaida doctors trained to implant bombs in humans

Western intelligence agencies believe that al-Qaida doctors have been trained to implant bombs inside the bodies of suicide bombers, Britain's Sunday Times reported.

 

Doctors stop world's tallest man from growing

Doctors at the University of Virginia successfully stopped the tallest man in the world from growing, the Daily Progress reports.

 

Sex-changing treatment for kids: It's on the rise

Gender Identity Disorder

A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics....

 

Virtual colonoscopy still has its skeptics

Virtual colonoscopy still has its skeptics

Whether the most technologically advanced way to check for colon cancer will become the standard screening method of the future does not appear to be a slam-dunk. The method, known as virtual colonoscopy, combines X-ray and computer technology to create three-dimensional views of the full length of the colon, the large intestine. It allows doctors to look for polyps, or pre-cancerous growths, or other signs of cancer or other intestinal disease. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, virtual colonoscopy can be done with computed tomography (called a CT or CAT scan) or with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

 

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