US Military to test brain injury therapy

The U.S. military plans clinical trials next year to see whether breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber might help thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

About 300 service members with mild to moderate damage will participate in the trials of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help determine whether it can help them heal, or at least ease the headaches, mood swings or other symptoms linked to brain injury.

Some will spend a total of 40 hours over 10 weeks breathing pure oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber, where the atmospheric pressure is increased to a level similar to what they would experience about 20 feet under water.

Whoa… a new drug resistant bacteria!

People who’ve taken as few as one or two doses of antibiotics can be at risk for C. diff infections, the new drug-resistant super bug that medical experts say is overtaking MRSA.

This super bug is so nasty that it can live on surfaces for up to five months, sicken you weeks – or months – after you’re exposed and conventional alcohol-based cleaners don’t kill it.

And unlike MRSA, you’ve probably never heard of this virus.

Clostridium difficile – better known as C. diff-is a multi-drug resistant bacterium like MRSA, but it affects only the digestive tract, causing diarrhea and sometimes life-threatening inflammation of the colon.

A new Duke University study shows rates of infection from the bacterium C. diff are overtaking those associated with MRSA infections in community hospitals. A revelation supported in other national and state health data sources and local hospital experiences.

Uninsured patients have been spending more with every passing year

The amount that hospitals charge the uninsured for inpatient care have grown by 88 percent between 1998 and 2007, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The average charge for an uninsured hospital stay grew from $11,400 in 1998 to $21,400 in 2007 after adjusting for inflation.

From 1998 to 2007, the number of uninsured hospital stays increased by 31 percent, which far exceeds the 13 percent overall increase in hospital stays during the period.
The percentage of uninsured hospital stays increased the most in the South, rising from 5.8 percent to 7.5 percent. In contrast, in the Midwest, the percentage of uninsured hospital stays declined from 4.7 percent to 4.0 percent.

The top reason that uninsured patients were hospitalized was for childbirth. In 2007, roughly a quarter of a million uninsured women gave birth in hospitals. This was followed by depression and bipolar disorder (94,300); chest pain with no observed cause (77,000); skin infections – which more than doubled from 31,000 to 73,300, and alcohol-related disorders (66,600).