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What is juvenile arthritis?
If your child complains and experiences stiffness or pain in the joints, and loss of flexibility and swelling, then consult a doctor as he may have juvenile arthritis.
Arthritis is largely associated with the elderly, but shockingly children too can develop arthritis. Senior Consultant - Arthroscopy and Joint Replacement, Dr. Jayant Arora with Columbia Asia Hospital, Gurgaon explains what is juvenile arthritis, types of juvenile arthritis, causes and symptoms of juvenile arthritis, and prevention and treatment of juvenile arthritis.
What is juvenile arthritis?
Juvenile arthritis affects children; Dr. Jayant explains "Any form of arthritis occurring in children below the age of 16 years is called juvenile or childhood arthritis. It is a chronic auto immune disease, where the body attacks its own healthy cells." Due to poor autoimmune system your children will experience juvenile arthritis.
Full story of juvenile arthritis at Times of India
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Occupational therapists help patients recover, achieve better quality of life
Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants work with people of all ages to participate in the activities (occupations) they want and need to do.
Patricia Fingerhut, OT, PhD, assistant professor and chair of department of occupational therapy at The University of Texas Medical Branch - Galveston, said, "our profession began in 1917 as 'reconstruction aides' as soldiers began coming back during World War I. Physical therapy began in the same place, and our specializations eventually split into two distinct groups."
Occupational therapists also commonly help children with disabilities participate in school and social situations, help people recovering from injury to regain skills, and provide support for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes.
"In the area of health care careers, occupational therapists are unique. We call ourselves the 'git 'er done' people," Fingerhut said, "because our goal is helping people to get back to doing whatever it is they want to do."
Full story of occupational therapy at the Houston Chronicle
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Medical errors are hard for doctors to admit, but it’s wise to apologize to patients
In 2007, I published a story in my local paper in which I confessed to having made a medical error years earlier. I’d mistakenly prescribed an antibiotic for a patient whose chart indicated an allergy to the drug.
Thankfully, the story had a happy ending. My patient recovered and took no legal action after I explained to her what had happened. I ended my article vowing to take greater care to prevent errors and urging doctors to take responsibility for their mistakes, even when a patient hasn’t been harmed.
The response among many of my colleagues was: Why? If a patient makes a full recovery, why should doctors admit to a mistake that might have otherwise gone unnoticed? Our intentions as doctors are good, and confessing our errors would only create unnecessary personal humiliation and undermine our authority. Moreover, what if the patient looks at an admission of error as a winning ticket in the malpractice lottery?
Like me, many of my colleagues were never taught how to disclose errors in medical school. Errors were considered incidental lapses and used as teaching points among residents; we were not to discuss them with patients unless absolutely necessary. When I joined a private practice 18 years ago, our hospital and malpractice lawyers told us never to admit guilt. Risk managers were clear that we were to contact them in the event of an error. If patients’ families had questions, we were to be vague with our responses, essentially brushing them off.
Full story on medical errors at The Washington Post
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Triple amputee wants Boston victims to know it gets better
The emotional impact of last month's bomb blasts in Boston that killed three, wounded 264 and severed limbs from more than a dozen victims still reverberates in suburban bank manager Kent Carson — from his head to where his toes used to be.
"The first thing I thought was that I'd love to talk to those people. I think about them all the time," says Carson, 55, as he slips on his fake arm and two prosthetic legs. "I wish I could go out there and talk to those people. I wish somebody would have walked into my room and taken off their legs and showed me that a person can walk again."
Generally not seen outside of a war zone, Carson's catastrophic loss of three limbs was caused not by an explosion, but by an infection known as Legionnaires' disease. The bacteria that cause it generally live in water or air-conditioning systems. "I'll probably never know where I got mine from," Carson says. But he relates to the shock felt by those Boston victims.
"I was fine. I got sick. And woke up with my arm and legs gone," Carson says.
Full story of Boston victims at the Daily Herald
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Traumatic brain injury impacts victim’s family, too
Rachel Stovall doesn’t get mad – she gets organized.
When Stovall met Josh Wells in November 2010, the damage from his time with Alpha Company, 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, in Iraq from January 2004 to March 2005 had already been done, his brain forever changed by multiple IED blasts he sustained throughout his deployment. As she’s fallen in love with the wounded warrior, rather than getting upset when Wells forgets something, a symptom of his traumatic brain injury, the flight test engineer for Redstone Test Center has learned to be understanding of the challenges Wells will face his entire life.
“I know it’s something that’ll be a permanent part of our life, and it’ll be difficult on occasion, but it’s workable,” Stovall said. “You have to keep reminding yourself that it’s not the person’s fault they can’t remember things. There’s going to be issues, but if you keep remembering that there’s a cause to it, and it’s not just because he’s a guy, then it makes it a little more workable.”
It’s not just the Soldier or individual who experiences the lasting effects of a traumatic brain injury, but the family and friends that surround them as well, who have to learn to cope when their loved one is forgetful, can’t concentrate or find the right words, is anxious, depressed, irritable or prone to mood swings, all symptoms of a traumatic brain injury.
Full story of families impact of TBI at Redstone Rocket
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FLEX CEUs: New Courses for March
NEW: OT CategoryFYI, we now have a new OT category on the website to make it easier for OT's to find what they're looking for. Check it out at Flex CEUs OT CEUs. Now on to the new courses!
NEW: Knee Pain - Total Knee Arthroplasty
$18.00 [2.00 CE Hours]
Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) results in pain reduction and improved function for many patients; although, individuals are often left with muscular impairments that fail to completely resolve even years after surgery. The role of quadriceps weakness is stressed in this course due to the association to normal functional activities; however, hamstring strength deficits have also been reported after TKA surgery. Preoperative and postoperative interventions are reviewed, including a comparison of therapeutic exercise approaches. Finally, clinical guidelines and recommendations based on current available evidence are described.
NEW: Frozen Shoulder/Adhesive Capsulitis - Classification & Treatment Considerations
$45.00 [5.00 CE Hours]
Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, describes the common shoulder condition characterized by painful and limited active and passive range of motion. This course will give an overview of the different classifications of frozen shoulder as well as the etiology, pathology, examination, and plan of care. The second portion of the course compares the effectiveness of anterior versus posterior glide mobilization techniques for improving shoulder external rotation range of motion in this patient population.
Full information on new courses and many others at FLEX CEUs
Hands-On Treatment Improves Chronic Low Back Pain, Reduces Medication Use
The numbers are staggering. More than 632 million people worldwide suffer from low back pain, and it is a leading cause of disability. According to the Institute of Medicine, one-third of all Americans suffer from chronic pain, which exceeds the number of people who are affected by heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined. In the United States alone, approximately 100 million adults are affected by chronic pain, and the economic costs of medical care and lost productivity total more than $550 billion annually.
"Chronic low back pain is an important component of these costs, " said John Licciardone, D.O., executive director of The Osteopathic Research Center at the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth (UNTHSC) and author of a study published today in the Annals of Family Medicine. "Our research offers hope in the form of a hands-on treatment that provides moderate to substantial improvement in pain, and that reduces the use of prescription medication."
This study, conducted at UNTHSC, used osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) and ultrasound therapy to treat chronic low back pain in 455 adults. Patients in the study who received ultrasound therapy did not see any improvement, but the patients who received OMT did see significant improvement in pain, used less prescription medication and were more satisfied with their care over the 12 weeks of the study than those patients who did not receive OMT.
Full story of chronic low back pain at Science Daily
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Concussions: Even one can change the brain, study finds
Even a single concussion appears to cause changes in the structure of the brain that may make cognitive problems and depression a higher likelihood, a new study has found.
The study, which used magnetic resonance imaging to compare healthy subjects' brains with those of patients a year after a mild traumatic brain injury, indicated that those with such injuries had shrinkage in brain regions that are key to memory, executive function and mood regulation.
The study, published online in the journal Radiology on Tuesday, is the first to show that even a single concussion can leave measurable scars on the brain. It used three-dimensional MRI scanning to measure the brain volume of 28 recent concussion victims and 22 matched controls. A year later, researchers conducted the same scans of 19 patients with mild traumatic brain injuries and 12 of a healthy control group.
Full story of concussions and the brain at the Los Angeles Times
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What’s Causing Your Back Pain?
In the 2012 Olympics men's 200m final, Usain Bolt said, "I knew it was going to be a world record because when I came off the corner, I could feel it." But he said he felt a strain on his back and so he had to change his form.
I have a similar recollection in 2001 in the parents' race at McCam's Child Development Centre. I am sure it would have been a record for the school that day, had I not felt a sudden pain in my back!
Next patient!
It is very likely that my next patient may be complaining of back pain given the common occurrence of this problem. There are many different causes of such pain.
Think about the key structures that make up the back: muscles, ligaments, bones, discs and nerves. Injury or strain to any of these can cause pain. I have heard this many times: "Just as I slowed down to stop at the traffic light, I heard this bang and then felt my car jolting forward. My back hasn't stopped hurting since." A very clear cause!
Full story of back pain at Jamaica Gleaner
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Head injuries a rising danger for snowboarders, skiers
The dumbest ride Kevin Pearce ever took down the halfpipe wasn't the one that ended his snowboarding career. That run on Dec. 31, 2009, the one that resulted in a traumatic brain injury less than two months before the Vancouver Olympics, came less than three weeks after the run Pearce says he should have never taken.
Earlier that month, Pearce, who was 22 at the time, was pushing to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team and emerging as a challenger to Shaun White. Trying to land a cab 1080, a trick that Pearce had "on lock," he fell and hit his head. Hard.
"I was so sick and so dizzy and so gone after that," he recalled this month.
But Pearce's handling of less severe concussions and his life-changing brain injury highlight the extremes of what can go wrong when athletes hurtle themselves three stories in the air to perform tricks on a hard-packed halfpipe.
White, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, will defend his halfpipe title this weekend at the U.S. Open snowboarding championships in Vail, Colo. While the season ends in March, White and other athletes will spend the coming months working on tricks in pursuit of medals at the Sochi Olympics less than a year away.
Full story of TBI and skiers at USA Today
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