Featured series 
Tag: Surgery
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Nation & World
Memories of air-raid sirens, bombed-out tanks near Kyiv
Ukrainian physicians from Mass. General and Brigham & Women’s are leveraging what they see as their most effective asset — knowledge — to help those back home.
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Health
Ahead for health care, a likely mixed bag
The repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate will likely mean that some healthier and higher-income people leave the rolls of the insured, but it won’t mean the law’s doom, says Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Associate Professor Benjamin Sommers. Still, the dilution and unenthusiastic administration of the law likely means the…
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Health
For family, doctors, life and death were inseparable
Surgeons at MassGeneral Hospital for Children faced a wrenching decision in a procedure to separate twins conjoined at the abdomen and pelvis.
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Campus & Community
SurgiBox wins $70,000 President’s Challenge
SurgiBox, a collapsible, safe, and aseptic surgery device, won this year’s $70,000 grand prize in the President’s Challenge.
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Arts & Culture
Body of work
An émigré physician at Harvard Medical School has written a book about the multitude of anatomy-based English expressions.
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Health
The goal: New arms
Will Lautzenheiser, a former Boston University film professor who lost his arms and legs from an infection, has been cleared by the Institutional Review Board at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital for a double arm transplant, a complex procedure requiring 12 to 16 hours of work by a team of surgeons.
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Campus & Community
Healing hands for an ailing world
Benedict Nwachukwu, graduating with a dual M.D./M.B.A. degree, wants to apply the management skills he learned at Harvard Business School to the medical problems he finds in orthopedics and in global health.
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Health
Major weight loss tied to microbes
In a study conducted by Harvard and MGH researchers, gut microbes of mice underwent drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery, and transfer of the microbes into sterile mice resulted in rapid weight loss.
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Science & Tech
Soft-bots
Harvard Professor George Whitesides and his research team have developed an array of “soft” robots based on natural forms, including squids and starfish, that may one day be used to aid disaster recovery efforts by squeezing into the rubble left by an earthquake to locate survivors, or as a way to free up a surgeon’s…
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Health
Harvard surgeons perform hand transplant
Fourteen Harvard surgeons, supported by 36 anesthesiologists, radiologists, nurses, and other medical personnel at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, worked for 12 hours to give a new pair of hands to a 65-year-old Revere man who lost both arms below the elbows and both legs below the knees as a result of a septic infection…
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Campus & Community
Schermerhorn named distinguished fellow
The Society for Vascular Surgery elected Harvard Medical School professor Marc Schermerhorn as a distinguished fellow.
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Campus & Community
John J. Collins Jr.
At Harvard Medical School, John J. Collins Jr. was appointed Assistant in Surgery in 1968 and rose steadily through the academic ranks, serving as Professor of Surgery from 1977 until his retirement as Professor of Surgery, Emeritus in 1999.
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Health
Where surgery is lacking
Authorities on global health and surgery gathered Nov. 5 to discuss how to address the lack of trained surgeons and adequate operating rooms in developing nations.
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Nation & World
Night shift, Port-au-Prince
A series of tents now function as Port-au-Prince’s primary hospital, as post-earthquake medical volunteers make ends meet during the night shift.
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Campus & Community
Study Finds Pro and Cons to Prostate Surgeries
People intuitively think that a minimally invasive approach has fewer complications, even in the absence of data,” said Dr. Jim C. Hu, the study’s lead author, who is director of urologic robotic and minimally invasive surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
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Health
MGH researchers develop potentially safer general anesthetic
News release — Mass. General team develops potentially safer general anesthetic A team of Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has developed a new general anesthetic…
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Health
Spinal fusion protein associated with complications, higher costs
In the United States, back pain continues to be a leading cause of disability and one of the most common reasons to see a physician for evaluation. Among various treatment…
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Health
Harvard surgeons perform second partial face transplant in U.S.
Surgeons at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital toiled for 17 hours in twin operating rooms yesterday performing the second facial transplant surgery operation in the U.S. The complex, challenging operation,…
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Health
Surgical safety checklist drops deaths and complications by more than one-third
A group of hospitals in eight cities around the globe has successfully demonstrated that the use of a simple surgical checklist during major operations can lower the incidence of deaths…
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Health
Common surgical anesthetic induces Alzheimer’s-associated changes in mouse brains
For the first time researchers have shown that a commonly used anesthetic can produce changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of living mammals, confirming previous laboratory studies. In…
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Health
Video game technology may help surgeons operate on beating hearts
Surgery has been done inside some adults’ hearts while the heart is still beating, avoiding the need to open the chest, stop the heart and put patients on cardiopulmonary bypass.…
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Health
CT significantly reduces the need for appendectomy
For the study, the researchers analyzed 663 patients who were examined on CT for suspected appendicitis. An appendectomy was performed on 268 of the CT-screened patients. Of these 268 patients,…
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Campus & Community
Breathing easier after spinal cord injuries
njuries to the upper spinal cord can take a victim’s breath away. Most people don’t know that breathing difficulties are the leading cause of disease and death after such injuries.…
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Campus & Community
Ninety percent of U.S. wounded survive
For an article in the Dec. 9, 2004 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Atul Gawande, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a surgeon at Brigham…
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Campus & Community
Surgery done on a single cell
A superprecise scalpel that can be used to operate on an individual cell is now a reality thanks to experimenters at Harvard University. “Ultrashort laser pulses [up to 1,000 a…
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Health
Study identifies risk factors for retained objects after surgery
A study found that errors involving leaving surgical sponges or instruments inside patients are more likely to happen during emergency procedures, or in operations where there is a sudden change…
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Health
Replacing joints early may be better than waiting for some osteoarthritis sufferers
In a study, scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Toronto Western Hospital followed the progress of patients who opted to have joint replacement surgery. They found that those…
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Health
Research finds benefits for adults who have tonsils removed
A study followed 83 chronic tonsillitis sufferers over a three-year period. Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers found that removing the tonsils was ultimately more effective than antibiotic treatments because those…
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Health
Surgery without scalpels
Paul Simmons, a 29-year-old Maine farmer, suffered from a lung tumor. In February 2001, at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a probe containing a long needle was inserted…