Complications
Complications are unintended and often undesirable outcomes that can occur during medical procedures or treatments. They can range from minor issues to more serious adverse events and may arise due to various factors such as underlying health conditions, surgical errors, or reactions to medications. Understanding complications is crucial for healthcare providers to anticipate risks, mitigate potential harms, and ensure patient safety.
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Cholesterol-lowering drugs are a huge business. If you’re a cardiologist, you’ll likely argue with your dying breath that these medications have revolutionized medicine. On the other hand, the data continues to mount that the positive effects of taking these medications are puny and the side effects are real. This morning I’d like to go over a new…read more
Is Injecting Bupivacaine or Lidocaine into a Joint Malpractice?
This week a patient sent a note that her mom was to undergo surgery and the anesthesia crew was planning on using the local anesthetic bupivacaine. She knew from reading the blog that this wasn’t a good idea, so let’s explore just how nasty this drug is to joints and why doctors are still using…read more A New and Research-Based Corticosteroid Consent Form
Since the research continues to mount showing that the high-dose corticosteroids physicians inject every day into the spine and joints can and do cause harmful side effects, I recently mentioned on LinkedIn that malpractice could soon be an issue. Meaning that the side effects of steroids are so bad, that at the very least, we…read more Reports of the Death of the C1–C2 Facet Injection Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
In 1897, Mark Twain was on a speaking tour in London when an American newspaper started a rumor that he was gravely ill. This was soon followed by an obituary. When asked by an American reporter in London about his death, Twain quipped, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” I feel the same…read more If You Need a Hip Replacement, Get Your Low Back Fixed First!
It’s always great to see enlightened physicians tying together how one part of the body impacts the other. We’ve done a great disservice to patients by educating them that their knee, hip, and spine are separate instead of all one big machine. Now a recent study shows us yet another connection between the low back…read more Disc Replacement Side Effects: New Research Is Concerning
The whole idea behind disc replacement is that it should have fewer side effects than fusing the spine. The artificial disc allows motion, which is, in theory, similar to a normal biologic disc. However, what if an artificial disc ended up distorting normal motion so badly that it still caused the disc above and below…read more The Simplest Stem Cell Injection Route May Be the Most Risky
You would think that since an IV is the simplest and least invasive form of application of stem cells, it would also be the safest. However, many years ago, I was part of an organization that investigated some deaths in Asia related to IV stem cell infusions. Now a new study may explain why IV stem…read more Cervical Disc Replacement Complications: Metal Ions
We ended the 20th century with the idea that we could cut out parts of a person, like a joint or a disc, and insert metal and achieve great things. Then reality got in the way, in that studies began to show that these metal or plastic or ceramic parts wear down and those particles…read more 
