Health News - Wednesday, January 10, 2007
More than 120,000 obese Americans had some kind of surgery to help them lose weight in 2004, with the biggest increase among middle-aged people, according to a study released on Wednesday. In 1998, 772 people aged 55 to 64 had gastric bypass, stapling or some similar procedure known as bariatric surgery to help weight loss. But that number ballooned to 15,086 in 2004, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
"Among the reasons for the extremely dramatic increases is that the mortality outcomes from obesity surgery have improved greatly," the agency said in a statement. "The national death rate for patients hospitalized for bariatric surgery declined 78 percent, from 0.9 percent in 1998 to 0.2 percent in 2004." Continue reading
The broad-spectrum antibiotic levofloxacin is highly effective against the bacteria that typically cause ear infections in children, according to researchers. In the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, Dr. Adriano Arguedas of Instituto de Atencion Pediatrica, San Jose, Costa Rica and colleagues, note that levofloxacin, sold under the trade name Levaquin, has an excellent record for treating bacterial infections in the throat and lungs.
To determine its effectiveness and safety for ear infections, the researchers studied 205 children who had, or were at high risk for, persistent or repeat infections. They ranged in age from 6 months to 4 years. Fluid samples from the middle ear were taken before and after treatment with levofloxacin, which was given for 10 days. Continue reading
A new drug that helps people with a severe, inherited form of high cholesterol looks promising, a study found. But even the researchers, who report their findings in the Jan. 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, caution that the compound has its downsides and the study was small.
Dr. Daniel J. Rader, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and his colleagues gave the drug to six people with a condition called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), in which a gene mutation makes cholesterol levels abnormally and dangerously high. Those with FH typically develop cholesterol problems early and may get heart disease before they reach the age of 20; they generally don't live past the age of 30. Continue reading