Faculty Bibliography

Los cirujanos de trasplantes estan esperando el dia en que los tejidos no esenciales para vivir sean donados a otros de manera rutinaria; mientras, se dedican a reemplazar manos, traqueas y nervios Se cree que los trasplantes mas novedosos son pocos, ya que ninguna organizacion central lleva un recuento y no hay manera de saber cuanta gente se beneficiaria de ellos si prueban ser exitosos a largo plazo. Eminentes cirujanos de trasplantes preven un futuro donde puedan ponerles nuevos rostros a pacientes quemados; darle a una mujer senos nuevos, o incluso un utero; trasplantar penes; y reconstruir mandibulas y tejidos del cuello a pacientes con cancer, heridas de bala, mordidas de perro o lesiones de accidentes

After [Clint Hallam]'s experimental transplant was performed on Sept. 23, 1998, many doctors predicted failure, saying his body would reject the combination of skin and dozens of muscles, tendons, nerves and blood vessels in the donor arm. They added that even if the foreign tissue was accepted, Hallam's brain could not power nerves that had been severed in a prison accident 14 years earlier, and the new arm would be a useless stump. Hallam underwent extensive psychological testing in Australia and France before surgery. But [Earl Owen]'s team was embarrassed to learn only at the time of the transplant that Hallam had lost his hand and forearm in a circular saw accident while in prison in New Zealand, not in a logging accident, as he had told the doctors earlier. Hallam has stopped taking steroids and now takes two anti- rejection drugs. A serious rejection reaction can occur at any time after any transplant. The immune suppression resulting from the anti- rejection therapy and mild diabetes leaves Hallam at increased risk of infection

A year after he received a new right hand and forearm in a transplant operation in France, Clint Hallam of Australia has gained a sufficient grip to ride a motorcycle and even write with a pen, his doctors say. After the experimental transplant was performed Sept. 23, 1998, many doctors predicted failure, saying a body would reject the combination of skin and dozens of muscles, tendons, nerves and blood vessels in the donor arm. They added that even if the foreign tissue were accepted, Hallam's brain could not power nerves that had been severed in a prison accident 14 years earlier, and the new arm would be a useless stump

After the experimental transplant was performed on Sept. 23, 1998, many doctors predicted failure, saying a body would reject the combination of skin and dozens of muscles, tendons, nerves and blood vessels in the donor arm. They added that even if the foreign tissue was accepted, Mr. (Clint) Hallam's brain could not power nerves that had been severed in a prison accident 14 years earlier, and the new arm would be a useless stump. But substantial nerve regeneration has occurred, more is expected in the months ahead, and Mr. Hallam, 49, has not experienced a serious rejection reaction, said Dr. Earl Owen, the hand surgeon in Sydney, Australia, who headed the international team that performed the transplant in Lyons, France. Mr. Hallam's new hand has about 25 percent of normal grip strength and the pinch grip between his index finger and thumb is good, Dr. Owen said in a telephone interview last week, during a visit to Lyons to review Mr. Hallam's progress in the last year. Mr. Hallam could not be reached for an interview

AS she readies herself for a possible U.S. Senate run from New York, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, 52, visited with a Manhattan plastic surgeon last week, reportedly to discuss cosmetic eyelid surgery. A. According to Dr. Barry M. Zide, professor of plastic surgery at New York University Medical Center, you are a good candidate for eyelid surgery if you have loose or excess skin that obscures the natural fold of your upper eyelids; if your upper eyelids are constantly puffy; or if you have bags and dark circles under you eyes, or excess skin and wrinkles on your lower eyelids - all of which can be as a result of aging or heredity. Q. What are the risks of eyelid surgery? Complications from eyelid surgery are infrequent, but all surgery, however minor, poses certain risks, including infection and adverse reaction to anesthesia. These should be discussed with your surgeon. Also, be sure to mention all prescription medications and over-the-counter supplements you are taking

It was just the kind of phone call the New York City Health Department welcomes, however troubling: Dr. Deborah S. Asnis, an infectious disease specialist at Flushing Hospital in the Queens, reported she had two elderly patients with symptoms suggesting neurological illness. It might be botulism, a deadly form of food-borne illness, or Guillain-Barre syndrome, a form of paralysis. But it looked more like encephalitis, a potentially fatal inflammation of the brain. Dr. Marcelle Layton, the head of the Health Department's Bureau of Communicable Diseases, took that first call on Monday, Aug. 23. Dr. Asnis told her that tests of the patients' spinal fluid suggested a viral infection, either meningitis or encephalitis. Dr. Layton urged Dr. Asnis to send specimens of the patients' spinal fluid and blood to the New York State Health Department laboratory in Albany for additional tests to detect a virus. On Friday, Aug. 27, Dr. Layton and her associate, Dr. Annie Fine, called Dr. Asnis to discuss her two patients. There has been a third, Dr. Asnis told them, and even as the three doctors were speaking, another doctor interrupted to tell Dr. Asnis about a fourth case

After hitting a routine backhand during practice, [Pete Sampras], 28, said he suddenly felt as if he was "stabbed by a knife." He was originally diagnosed with a mild muscle strain, but after a restless night due to the pain, further tests revealed an abnormality in a disc in his lower back, which is believed to be contributing to his agony. The two lowest discs in the spine (one of which Sampras injured) are subject to tremendous forces, sometimes bearing 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per square inch during sporting activities. This kind of stress, the pressure surrounding back muscles normally exert on the discs and the motion of, say, swinging a racket, can all cause a disc to move out of place

The prevalence of AIDS among prisoners in the United States is five times that of the general population, and the rates for some other sexually transmitted disease are even higher, scientists said this week . Reporting on the first comprehensive study of these diseases in prisons and jails, the lead author, Theodore Hammett, said the high prevalence of AIDS among prisoners reflects their widespread use of drugs before they were imprisoned. He presented the findings Tuesday at the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta. Prisons are a critical setting for detecting and treating sexually transmitted diseases, Hammett said, but the quality of health care varies widely. About 90 percent of the prisons and jails say they make the newer combinations of anti-HIV drugs available, but not necessarily to all inmates, Hammett said