Physicians pride themselves on taking a scientific, evidence-based approach to therapeutic questions. Unfortunately, in many clinical situations the evidence is scant or limited. One common and thorny situation is whether to give antibiotic prophylaxis to total joint Continue reading
Category Archives: Medical Practice
CURING our prescription drug abuse ills
The California State Senate Business and Professions Committee recently passed out of committee SB 809, a measure which will levy a 1.2% license fee for pharmacists, NPs, physicians, and podiatrists to increase funding for the Continue reading
What preventive services does my patient really need?
Thank goodness for the steady march of technology. Do you remember how hard it was to find a BMI calculator in the good old days? You’d actually have to go to Google or Bing and enter “BMI calculator” to find one. How arcane is that? Ditto to find Continue reading
Choosing even more wisely
Many clinicians may recall the Choosing Wisely campaign launched a year and a half ago by the American Board of Internal Medicine in conjunction with Consumer Reports magazine. The product of 42 medical professional societies, Choosing Wisely presented Continue reading
Screening for domestic violence
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently revised its recommendations on screening for domestic violence (DV). In a change from 2004, they now advocate that women of child-bearing age be screened for this problem, and referred to an Continue reading
Tennis, anyone?
The use of steroid injections and physical therapy for tennis elbow, lateral epicondylalgia, has been called into question in a number of small studies. Now, Australian researchers, Coombes et.al., have published the results of a randomized trial of steroid injection vs Continue reading
Cigarettes – still the most serious health risk
Two recent studies in the NEJM (January 24, 2013) highlight some good news and some bad news on cigarette smoking. Let’s start with the bad news – cigarette smoking remains the single biggest risk to people’s health. A survey of 200,000 smokers showed Continue reading
Put away the Swingline and dust off the sewing kit – staples associated with more post-op wound complications than subcutaneous closure after Cesarean delivery
Being a Family Physician who formerly had C-Section privileges, I welcomed the use of closure with staples. They seemed faster (true), sterile, non-wicking in wound closure, and, I thought, better. Well, at the University of Alabama, Continue reading