While vacationing in Fiji, 62-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards fell out of a palm tree and suffered a mild concussion.

... media reports in Australia and New Zealand said Richards hurt his head after falling out of a palm tree at an exclusive Fiji resort and remained hospitalized in Auckland. (Washington Post)

April 30, 2006

Isabelle Dinoire, the French woman who underwent the world's first face transplant after she was attacked by a dog, says she now has complete feeling in her face.

Isabelle Dinoire, 38, also told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the hardest part of her recovery appears to be getting to know herself again. When asked if she has accepted her new face, she responded: "It's too difficult to explain." (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Injuries and Trauma

April 17, 2006

According to LIJ, “ONJ is a condition in which the bone tissue in the jaw fails to heal after minor trauma such as a tooth extraction, causing the bone to be exposed.” The exposure, the doctors said, can eventually lead to infection and fracture and may require long-term antibiotic therapy or surgery to remove the dying bone tissue. (opednews.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Osteoporosis

April 13, 2006

Seeger Weiss LLP announces that it is investigating claims against Merck & Co. for Fosamax-related injuries, including reports of osteonecrosis of the jaw. (chron.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Osteoporosis

March 22, 2006

Fluoride in drinking water — long controversial in the United States when it is deliberately added to strengthen teeth — can damage bones and teeth, and federal standards fail to guard against this, the National Academy of Sciences reported Wednesday. (MSNBC)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Fluoride

February 24, 2006

A new drug for osteoporosis increases bone mineral density and decreases the rate of bone destruction in postmenopausal women.

The study centered on injections of denosumab, which made its administering different from almost every other treatment for osteoporosis. "They show that the drug is very potent," said Dr. Michael Whyte, author of an accompanying editorial and a professor of medicine, pediatrics and genetics at Washington University in St. Louis. "When they administer the denosumab subcutaneously, the bone breakdown parameters plummet very rapidly." (excite.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Osteoporosis

February 16, 2006

The latest news about calcium and vitamin D may not look so encouraging, but most experts say the take-home message is the same: Keep taking your pills.

The biggest study ever to examine the value of the supplements suggests they convey only limited protection against broken bones. They failed to protect against most fractures in the mostly low-risk women, but seemed to offer some benefit against hip breaks among women over 60 and those who took the pills most faithfully. (excite.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Calcium

January 29, 2006

A macabre scandal has spread from a body-harvesting lab in New Jersey to hospitals as far away as Florida, Nebraska and Texas as hundreds of people discover that they have received tissue and bone carved from looted corpses, not least the cadaver of Alistair Cooke, the late and erudite host of PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre." (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Orthopedic Surgery

December 27, 2005

Bone loss is an often-overlooked consequence of heavy drinking, but recent research has illuminated how alcohol takes a toll on the bones, according to a new report.

In a review of cell, animal and human studies, Dr. Dennis A. Chakkalakal of the Omaha VA Medical Centre in Nebraska describes how heavy drinking leads to bone loss, higher risk of fractures and slower healing of bone breaks. (MSNBC)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Alcohol

December 13, 2005

A growing number of U.S. hospitals, including at least eight in the Washington area, are saving money by reusing medical devices designated for one-time use, ignoring the warnings of manufacturers, which will not vouch for the safety of their reconditioned products. (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Surgery

December 08, 2005

A new study has found that an injection of Botox relieves the pain of tennis elbow for up to three months. The findings of the study have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The new study is the first to find that botulinum toxin injections outperformed a placebo in the treatment of tennis elbow. In this case, injections of plain saline served as the placebo. (Reuters UK)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Tennis Elbow

December 04, 2005

Physicians in France said they had performed the world's first partial face transplant, advancing into a risky medical frontier with an operation on a woman disfigured by a dog bite.

The 38-year-old woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, had a nose, lips and chin grafted onto her face from a brain-dead donor whose family gave consent. The operation, performed Sunday, included a surgeon famous for transplant breakthroughs, Jean-Michel Dubernard. (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Injuries and Trauma