If you're used to getting a yearly influenza vaccine to reduce the risk of serious illness, you probably already know that early supplies of the vaccine have been hard to find and many people this year are on waiting lists to get their shots. In the elderly and many people who have other health problems, a bout of the flu can be fatal. A medical team based at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre in Melbourne, Australia, has pioneered a surgical technique that wraps the heart of end-stage heart failure patients in a mesh bag, preventing further dilation and failure.
Doctors call a new drug the first truly promising medication for the disorder called sleep apnea.
A Dresher teenager was in good condition yesterday after undergoing an unusual operation in which a surgeon took out her heart, removed a malignant tumor from it, then put the heart back in her body. A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 91 percent of Americans who turn to the Web for health information do so only in response to specific illnesses which is also the time they tend to seek information in the real world. Two powerful health insurance associations are merging, forming a giant lobby that will speak with one voice as it fights against a patients bill of rights and other government regulations. A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Wisconsin and its two major transplant centers over rules intended to change the way organs are distributed for transplants. There are lots of chances for information to fall through the cracks.