Severe Birth Complications On the Rise in United States

  Severe complications like kidney failure and heart attacks during and immediately after labor and delivery are rising nationwide, says a CDC report.  The report, published in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, has serious implications for pregnant women, attorneys in the malpractice field, obstetricians, ...

OTC Contraception May Soon Be Reality for American Women

  68 percent of women in America who are having unprotected sex say that they would be able to get birth control if they didn't have to first obtain a doctor's prescription.  While hormonal birth control pills are substantially safer than many types of over the counter medication, obstetricians and gynecologists have ...

Women: Be Wary About “Vaginal Rejuvenation” Surgeries

  Women who are interested in changing the appearance of their vulva may want to pay attention to a new study released in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology this month.  According to the study, the reasons that women seek out these cosmetic procedures are largely aesthetic, and they are often misinformed by internet sources ...

Abortion Rate Hits All-Time Low

  Questions about the impact of current abortion and sex education laws remain after a new CDC report indicates that abortion rates are at an all time low.  In 2009, the year for which the data has recently been compiled, 784,507 abortions took place in American hospitals and abortion clinics.  This represented a five ...

Doctors Call for Pre-Emptive Plan B Prescriptions

  Pediatricians should consider giving teenage girls a prescription for emergency contraception before they need it, according to a recent report released by the American Academy of Pediatrics.  The recommendation represents a significant shift in how the medication has been treated by pediatricians in the United States. Although ...

Study Questions Whether All Double Mastectomies are Necessary

  Researchers are re-examining breast cancer treatment protocols after several recent studies have indicated that breast cancer may be overdiagnosed and overtreated in the United States.  One study, released last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that as many as 1.3 million women in the United States have ...

Bone Marrow Stem Cells after Heart Attack Doesn’t Help

On November 5, 2012, the National Institutes of Health announced that patients who receive stem cells from their own bone marrow three to seven days after a heart attack do not show greater heart function within six months. The medical trial that looked into the treatment was called the Transplantation in Myocardial Infarction ...

Sapien Artificial Heart Valve Use Expanded

On October 19, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved the expanded use of the Sapien Transcatheter Heart Valve (THV).  Patients with aortic valve stenosis who can receive surgery but appear at risk of serious complications during surgery are now approved for the heart valve.   The Sapien THV was first approved ...

Head-First Births Safe Before 32 Weeks

On September 21, 2012, the National Institutes of Health reported that infants delivered head-first in standard deliveries before the 32nd term are just as likely to survive as infants delivered by a planned cesarean.  Infants born before the 32nd week face an increased risk of “death, cerebral palsy, developmental delays ...

NY Courts Streamline Medical Malpractice Suits

  New York courts specializing in the state’s 4,000 medical malpractice cases filed annually have begun expanding following the success of a Bronx judge in expediting the settlement process. The approach, which has shown to save money by reducing court backlogs, has been extended to the other boroughs, through the implementation ...

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