Author: Jim Dryden

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that taking a probiotic before radiation therapy can protect the intestine from damage — at least in mice. Their study suggests that taking a probiotic also may help cancer patients avoid intestinal injury, a common problem in those receiving radiation therapy for abdominal cancers.

A new study indicates that many patients undergoing spine surgery have low levels of vitamin D, which may delay their recovery. Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption, and patients with a deficiency can have difficulty producing new bone, which can, in turn, interfere with healing following spine surgery.

Wearing decorative contact lenses on Halloween — also known as fashion, color, cosmetic or theatre contact lenses — changes the look of the eyes, but the lenses don’t correct vision. If used incorrectly, they can impair vision and damage the eyes, according to an optometrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Itching is one of the most prevalent side effects of powerful, pain-killing drugs like morphine, oxycodone and other opioids. For many years, scientists have scratched their own heads about why the drugs so often induce itch while they are suppressing pain. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can control the opioid-induced itching without interfering with a drug’s ability to relieve pain.  

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times;} .MsoChpDefault {font-family:Cambria;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in;margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} Orthopaedic surgeon John C. Clohisy, MD, came from a medical family. His father was a general surgeon, and his mother a nurse anesthetist. More than half of their 10 children followed them into the field. But even that family pedigree didn’t make a career in medicine a “slam dunk” for Clohisy because he also was interested in teaching and research. Luckily, academic medicine allows him to pursue all three. 

The typical American diet includes nearly twice the recommended daily allowance for protein, and now a team of nutrition researchers, including Luigi Fontana, MD, PhD, and urologic surgeons at the School of Medicine, is conducting two studies to investigate a potential link between cancer and excess protein in the diet.  

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times;} .MsoChpDefault {font-family:Cambria;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in;margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} Rick W. Wright, MD, has been named the Dr. Asa C. and Mrs. Dorothy W. Jones Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. An author of more than 100 scientific publications, Wright joined the Washington University faculty as an instructor in 1994 and became a full professor in 2010. He is a frequently invited lecturer, nationally and internationally. 

Sports medicine specialists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Rick Wright, MD, and Corey Gill, MD, are leading a national study analyzing why a second surgery to reconstruct a tear in the knee’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) carries a high risk of bad outcomes. Between 1 percent to 8 percent of ACL repairs fail. Most patients then opt to have a second operation, but the failure rate for those subsequent surgeries is almost 14 percent.

Anesthesiology researchers have shown that a device to reduce the risk that patients will recall their surgery does not lower the risk of intraoperative awareness any more than a less expensive method. Unintended intraoperative awareness occurs when a patient becomes aware during surgery and later remembers being in pain or feeling distress during the operation. 

Siblings of children with autism are known to be at increased risk for autistic spectrum disorder, but now researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine led by John N. Constantino, MD, report the risk is substantially higher than previously believed. Their results show that 19 percent of infant siblings develop the disorder by age 3.