Occasionally I like to wrap up the week with some news highlights. We posted a lot of this to iUTMB earlier today, so I apologize to those of you who’ve already seen it. For those who have not, it’s good stuff.
New procedure at UTMB gives hope to cerebral palsy patients
A novel procedure that is now being done by a UTMB doctor, Dr. David Yngve, offers new hope for children with cerebral palsy. Cruz Martinez was born premature and with cerebral palsy. He knows what it is to struggle. Growing up, determination served him well. “I just never had the attitude he was different,” said his mother Michele Martinez, a UTMB employee. The Martinez family opted for a new surgery, and they shared their story in a KHOU 11 News report that aired Jan. 25. You can read more and watch the report online.Telemedicine connects patient with Rift Valley fever in Eastern Africa to UTMB doctors
The patient had arrived at the regional hospital three days earlier, after experiencing nearly four days of intense fever, severe throbbing headaches, joint pain, nausea, vomiting after eating and weakness so profound he could no longer walk. Dr. Summerpal Kahlon, a UTMB postdoctoral fellow who arrived in Kenya last week with the telemedicine equipment that facilitated this real-time consultation and medical examination, noted that the patient had reported experiencing a number of mosquito bites before coming down with his symptoms. He tested negative for malaria, a common disease in that area. Read more in Impact.Technique could help end back surgery failure
Scientists at UTMB believe they have discovered how to prevent many cases of the most common problem encountered by spine-injury patients, failed back surgery syndrome. FBSS occurs when surgery either fails to cure back pain or leads to additional chronic pain after a spinal operation. In experiments using laboratory rats, a team led by neuroscience and cell biology professor Claire Hulsebosch applied Lidocaine, a local anesthetic, to the rodents’ exposed spinal cords before subjecting them to simulated spinal surgery. Read more in the Daily News.