Focus
UK optometrist's suspended manslaughter sentence — landmark case
August 31st, 2016 A UK optometrist who failed to spot symptoms of hydrocephalus during a routine eye test of an eight-year-old who later died has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence. The landmark case is thought to be the first conviction of an...
Face transplant patient is thriving one year on
August 31st, 2016 The severely burned firefighter who underwent the most extensive face transplant ever performed is thriving one year after his historic surgery, according to his medical team at New York University Langone Medical Centre. Unprecedented among those...
Ultrasound used to jump-start coma patient's brain
August 31st, 2016 A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment at the University of California at Los Angeles to jump-start his brain using ultrasound. This is the first time that the technique, called low-intensity...
Caster wins Olympic gold and runs into another medical storm
August 24th, 2016 Caster Semenya won the Rio 800m in the fifth-fastest time in Olympic history but may never get to run so fast again, reports The Guardian. The IAAF, the world athletic control body, wants to ban hyperandrogenic athletes like Semenya unless they...
Combined HRT triples breast cancer risk – UK study
August 24th, 2016 Combined oestrogen-progestogen hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can triple the risk of breast cancer, the biggest ever study has found, following more than a decade of controversy. Findings by the UK Institute of Cancer Research and Breast Cancer...
Junior doctors victory in Cape ups pressure on government
August 17th, 2016 SA Health is under pressure urgently to reduce the working hours of junior doctors nationally following Western Cape Health’s decision to slash maximum shifts from 30 to 24 hours. The Junior Doctors Association of SA told MedicalBrief it was...
DASH diet lowers chronic kidney disease risk, also gout marker
August 17th, 2016 The decades-old DASH diet — rich in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy and reduced in fats and saturated fats — significantly lowers risk of developing chronic kidney disease, Johns Hopkins research suggests. It also appears to significantly...
Brain-controlled robotics helping the paralysed regain muscle control
August 17th, 2016 News that scientists have unexpectedly restored some movement and sensation to paralysed patients is not simply an extension of previous work, writes Tim Radford in The Guardian Science Notes. He writes: “There have always been three lines of...
New asthma pill could be a 'game changer'
August 10th, 2016 The first new asthma pill for nearly 20 years has the power to significantly reduce the severity of the condition, a study led by the University of Leicester has found. “This new treatment, Fevipiprant, could likewise help to stop preventable...
Cervical stitch linked to stillbirth and prem birth
August 10th, 2016 In an Imperial College London study of almost 700 pregnant women who received a cervical cerclage designed to prevent preterm labour, the use of one type of suture over another was associated with three times higher risk of stillbirth and almost...
KZN Health slated for its conduct in case of patient given formalin to drink
August 10th, 2016 An elderly woman whose life was completely changed after being given formalin to drink instead of water, by an anaesthetist at Grey's Hospital Pietermaritzburg, has won her hospital malpractice suit after an eight-year struggle. But, writes...
Discovery in spotlight on soaring medical aid costs and its ‘nasty habits’
August 3rd, 2016 The Financial Mail’s Rob Rose and Katharine Child question CEO Adrian Gore about perceptions that Discovery, a model of corporate innovation, has beome ‘too powerful’ in the private medical aid market, about ‘a growing chorus of...
Suppression of HIV prevents transmission
August 3rd, 2016 Complete suppression of HIV replication appears 100% effective in preventing transmission of the virus, concludes a landmark trial on serodiscordant heterosexual couples, reports The New England Journal of Medicine. The landmark HPTN 052 trial...
Meat 'as bad as sugar' in its contribution to global obesity
August 3rd, 2016 Meat in the modern diet offers surplus energy and is contributing to global obesity to the same extent as sugar, found two University of Adelaide analyses. Comparative anatomy and human evolution experts from the University's School of Medicine...
Major studies on benefits of anti-thrombotics in stroke
July 27th, 2016 An Oxford University analysis suggests researchers have underestimated aspirin's effect in preventing early recurrent stroke and myocardial infarction after transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and ischaemic stroke; overestimated its role in preventing...