They are patients with diseases that mystify doctors, people whose symptoms are dismissed as psychosomatic, who have been given misdiagnosis upon misdiagnosis. They have confounded experts and have exhausted every hope save one. And so they wind up in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, a federally funded project that now includes 12 clinical centers, including one… Read More »
Femoral neuropathy, or femoral nerve dysfunction, refers to any disorder that results from damage to the femoral nerve. The femoral nerve is one of the largest nerves in the body. It begins in the pelvis and separates into several smaller branches. These nerve branches control the movements of various leg muscles. The femoral nerve itself… Read More »
By KIP SULLIVAN JD On the morning of December 21, I opened my copy of the New York Times to find an op-ed that said almost exactly what I had said in a two-part article The Health Care Blog posted two weeks earlier. The op-ed criticized the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), one of dozens of… Read More »
A ventriculoperitoneal shunt is a medical device that doctors use to treat a brain condition called hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a condition that causes fluid to build up on the brain, which increases the pressure around the brain. A ventriculoperitoneal shunt reduces that pressure. Doctors insert this medical device while a person is under general anesthetic.… Read More »