Avastin Carries Higher Risk for Blindness for Macular Degeneration Treatments (VIDEO)
[embed_youtube”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/ViLYG9bVnmI”]
Avastin Carries Higher Risk for Blindness for Macular Degeneration Treatments
Lucentis and Avastin are both used to treat the wet version of age-related macular degeneration. A new study from Queen’s University finds that Avastin, traditionally a cancer drug, carries a much higher risk for the development of serious intraocular inflammation, which can lead to blindness.
A review of 1,600 cases of patients who had been given either Lucentis or Avastin found that participants who were given Avastin were 12 times more likely to develop intraocular inflammation.
Researcher Sanjay Sharma, M.D. said: “This is of concern for patients receiving Avastin in the eye,” Sharma said. “It is particularly important because many of our seniors need numerous injections ÛÓ so the risk is cumulative.”
Both drugs are injected directly into the user’s eye and are made by Genentech. Since both drugs have been found to be equally effective in studies, insurance companies and government health plans prefer the off-label use of Avastin, which costs one-tenth of the price of Lucentis.
Source: McKnight’s Long Term Care News
New Guide Explains Hospitalist Role (VIDEO)
[embed_youtube”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/vZzQLF6YQ1o”]
New Guide Explains Hospitalist Role
Next Step in Care, a campaign by the United Hospital Fund has published a useful guide explaining the role of the hospitalist.
In most hospitals, there are now special doctors called ÛÏhospitalists.Û They manage patient care during the hospitalization. This is a job that used to be done by doctors with offices in the community. Today doctors in the community may not even know that their patients are in the hospital.
It is important for you as a family caregiver to know about hospitalists, and the services they do and do not provide. It is also important for you to know ways to ensure the best care for your family member, both in the hospital and after discharge.åÊ
This guide provides information about hospitalists, along with actions you can take and good questions to ask. But remember that this guide is general ÛÒ each hospital has its own way of providing patient care.åÊ
Courtesy: Next Step in Care
Low Risk of Shingle Reoccurence in Elderly
Shingles is a skin irritation disease that is caused by the same virus as the chicken pox. It is usually triggered by emotional stress, immune deficiency, cancer, or other illnesses and factors that can be related to aging, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Because the chicken pox virus never leaves the body, anyone who contracted the disease in childhood is at risk for shingles later in life. New research suggests that elderly adults who have had a single episode of shingles have a relatively low short-term risk for coming down with the painful skin condition again, regardless of vaccination status.
The CDC has recommended that adults aged 60 and over be vaccinated against shingles.
More than 43 million adults are at risk for the disease, and roughly 500,000 seniors contract it every year, according to the CDC. Merck & Co. Inc’s vaccine Zostavax has been shown to reduce the occurrence of shingles in seniors by up to 69% in some age groups.
“This study’s findings are important because we found that the risk of having a recurrent shingles episode is not as high as previous research indicates,” Kaiser Permanente researcher Hung-Fu Tseng, Ph.D., said. ÛÏWe now have empirical data that show the risk of recurrence is low among an elderly population who did not have compromised immune systems, regardless of their vaccination status.”
Led by Tseng, investigators analyzed health records of more than 6,000 people over the age of 60 who had cases of shingles, and then monitored the patients over a two-year follow up period to look at recurrence. At the conclusion of the follow-up period, researchers observed fewer than 30 recurrent cases of shingles, and very little difference in the rate of recurrence among vaccinated and un-vaccinated participants.
