Men Seeking Vasectomy Reversals Can Expect High Rates of Success
This retrospective study compared postoperative semen analysis parameters and patency rates of vasovasostomy performed in the convoluted versus straight portion of the vas deferens. This study was undertaken to assess whether or not the perceived increased technical difficulty that may be encountered resulted in a change in success rates.
Patient age, partner age, obstructive interval, gross and microscopic appearance of the intraoperative fluid aspirated from the testicular portion of the vas deferens, and postoperative semen analysis results were examined. Patency was defined as any sperm in the postoperative ejaculate and was compared for the 2 groups.
There were no significant differences in the postoperative semen analysis parameters of volume, total count, sperm density, motility or total motile count between the 2 groups. The patency rate was 98.1% and 97.3% for convoluted vasovasostomy and straight vasovasostomy, respectively, and was not statistically different.
Ovarian cancer risk lower with longer time on Pill
For each year that a woman takes an oral contraceptive, her risk of ovarian cancer is reduced by about 5 percent on average, report investigators from the University of Hawaii.
The reduction in ovarian cancer risk becomes apparent after a short time since first use (five years or less) and a short duration of use (one year), note Dr. Galina Lurie and colleagues.
Lurie, with the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and her colleagues identified these protective effects after studying data on 813 women with epithelial ovarian cancer and 992 women without ovarian cancer.
Survey gauges side effects of prostate treatments
Age, race and obesity affect how satisfied men are with their treatment for prostate cancer, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
And the effects of short-term hormone therapy can linger for years, the survey of 1,201 men treated at nine university hospitals and 625 of their partners found.
The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are designed to give doctors and patients a better idea of what to expect from three types of prostate cancer treatment.
Few options for stroke victims; research continues
More than a decade after the launch of clot-buster Activase, the Genentech Inc drug remains the only option for stroke victims despite high-profile research aimed at improving the odds of recovery from the No. 3 cause of death in the United States.
Since most stroke patients are unable to quickly recognize their symptoms, just a small percentage end up being treated with Activase, an intravenous drug approved for use only within three hours of the onset of a stroke.
Drug companies have sought to widen that treatment window and develop medicines that would protect the brain from damage caused by a stroke, but the field is littered with failures.
Angina more common in women than men
Although men have higher rates of fatal heart attacks than women, women are about 20 percent more likely than men to suffer from chronic heart-related chest pain—angina—a new analysis shows.
“The female excess is remarkably consistent across countries with widely differing (heart attack) mortality rates, spanning four decades of study period and four decades of participant age,” investigators report in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
Dr. Harry Hemingway, at University College London Medical School, and his associates conducted a systematic review of population studies that reported the prevalence of angina diagnosed using a standardized questionnaire.
Treatment promising for alcohol dependence
An extended-release version of the anti-addiction medicine naltrexone reduces drinking in alcohol-dependent patients within two days of being injected, according to a new study.
Naltrexone blocks opioid receptors and is approved for use in alcohol-dependent patients. To improve adherence, “an intramuscular, injectable, extended-release formulation of naltrexone has been developed,” Dr. Domenic A. Ciraulo, of Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues explain in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
The researchers tested injectable naltrexone XR in some 600 actively drinking, alcohol-dependent men and women who were given one of two doses of the drug or an inactive placebo every 4 weeks for 24 weeks. The participants also received 12 sessions of standardized, low-intensity psychosocial therapy.
