First robotic cervical surgery proves successful in US

A surgeon at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has performed a groundbreaking robotic laparoscopic procedure on a 35-year-old pregnant patient of Galveston, whose cervix was too short to sustain a pregnancy.

Dr. Sami Kilic, chief of minimally invasive gynecology and research at UTMB, is the first surgeon in the world reported to have used robotically assisted, ultrasound-guided laparoscopic surgery to successfully tighten a pregnant patient’s incompetent cervix.Kilic performed the surgery in December 2011 at UTMB’s John Sealy Hospital.

When performed traditionally, abdominal cerclage surgery requires a large incision and a long period of recovery.Kilic’s new procedure left the patient with only three tiny abdominal scars.

“The recovery was amazing. Two days later I was able to sit on the floor at home and play with my toddler,” new mum Leonora Orejuela said.Stitches to the cervix during surgery must be precise; a suture placed a hair’s breadth the wrong way can puncture either the amniotic sac or a major blood vessel in the mother.

With the dual visualization screen of the da Vinci Si robotic surgical system, Kilic was able to view a real-time ultrasound image on one screen and the operative field via scope camera on another screen, side by side, at the same time he performed the surgery.

This two-screen system offers unsurpassed visualisation in a laparoscopic surgical situation.

Kilic is an international pioneer in gynecologic robotic surgical techniques and training protocols who was hired by UTMB five years ago to spearhead a state-of-the-art robotic surgery training programme.

Orejuela, the patient, was discharged home the next day after a one-night stay in the hospital.

Orejuela proceeded to have an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy, going into labor at 36 weeks.

She delivered a healthy baby girl, Lucia Munoz, 6 pounds, 11.5 ounces, by Caesarean section.

The procedure is published online in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology

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Mark Zuckerberg Tie knot with Priscilla Chan

Facebook owner and the world nineteenth richest man Mark Zuckerberg married his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Saturday.
The Facebook CEO, whose company went public on Friday, has also updated his status to “married.”

Mark Zuckerberg with his Wife

The fewer than 100 celebrants that gathered in Zuckerberg’s backyard believed it was a party for Chan, who graduated from the Universityof California, San Francisco’s medical school on Monday.
Instead, they were surprised to find it was a wedding for the couple who met at Harvard and have been together for more than nine years.
A Facebook spokeswoman said Zuckerberg designed the ring himself, and that it featured “a very simple ruby.”

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'Ring of fire' eclipse visible in US this Sunday!! Don't forget to have Life time Experience!!

On Sunday, millions of people around the world will be watching to an amazing sight: an annular solar eclipse in which the moon will cover as much as 94 percent of the sun, leaving a glowing ring of fire. In the US, the eclipse will begin around 5:30 pm PDT and last around two hours. The greatest coverage will be at around 6:30 pm PDT. The last such eclipse to be seen in the UStook place in 1994, and the next will be in 2023 so you can say it a Life Time Experience.

Because some of the sun is always exposed during the eclipse, the amount of daylight falls dramatically - but looking at the ground beneath leafy trees will reveal crescent-shaped sunbeams and rings of light.

Ring of Fire seen due toTotal Solar Eclipse

The 'path of annularity' where the ring of fire can be seen is only about 200 miles wide, covers a swathe of the southern US - southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona, New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. The effect should last for around four and a half minutes.

Outside this band, other areas will see a partial eclipse.

"The ring of sunlight during annularity is blindingly bright," cautions NASA's leading eclipse expert Fred Espenak of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

"Even though most of the sun's disk will be covered, you still need to use a solar filter or some type of projection technique. A #14 welder's glass is a good choice. There are also many commercially-available solar filters."

#14 Welder's Glass Best for viewing Solar Eclipse

If you buy one, you'll get another chance to use it two weeks later when Venus makes a transit of the sun. Anyway If you are in Souther US don’t forget to watch the worth Sight of the Solar Eclipse.

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New Case of flesh-eating bacteria occurred in USA

After a case where student of psychology at the University of West Georgia was found infected by  the flesh eating bacteria known as Aeromonas hydrophila, A new case was seen in the USA and this time its New Mother.

   Lana Kuykendall is a paramedic, so when a rapidly spreading red and black bruise appeared on the back of her leg after giving birth to twins, she knew something was wrong.

She and husband, Darren, raced to the hospital and within 90 minutes, the new mother was having surgery for necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but potentially deadly infection also called the flesh-eating bacteria.

“She’s still critical,” Darren Kuykendall told GreenvilleOnline.com. “It’s been a nightmare.”

After a normal pregnancy, the Piedmont couple welcomed their twins, Abigail and Ian, on May 7 at an Atlanta hospital, he said. Except for Lana needing blood, the delivery went normally and the babies were fine, he said.

  Lana Kuykendall with Her Husband

But he said by the next day Lana, who had begun having leg cramps the night before, was weak. She couldn’t stand or walk. When tests revealed nothing wrong, they returned home Thursday.

By Friday morning, however, Lana, 36, discovered the strange lesion on the back of her left leg.

“That scared her. She thought it was a blood clot. So we rushed immediately to Greenville Memorial Hospital,” Darren Kuykendall said.

“And the longer she sat there, the bigger that spot got. It was initially the size of a 3-by-5 index card. But it got bigger and bigger. It moved a quarter of an inch in half an hour. Then the high-risk OB physician had a suspicion of what it was.”

Limbs Infeccted after Flesh eating bacteria attack it

Necrotizing fasciitis is a bacterial infection that often occurs in an arm or leg after a minor trauma or surgery, according to the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation. Group A Strep is most often responsible in minor traumas, the group reports.

People have developed the condition through a host of experiences, including a C-section or natural childbirth, abdominal surgery or a scratch, a broken leg or a cut, according to the group.

A recent highly publicized case involves Aimee Copeland, a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student who got the infection after suffering a cut in a zip line accident, according to The Associated Press. Doctors had to amputate her left leg and may still have to remove her fingers, her father said.

The disease occurs when bacteria enter the body and emit toxins that destroy the soft tissue, which becomes infected and must be removed, according to the NF foundation. Along with surgery, treatment includes antibiotics and other medications.

If it spreads, it can cause systemic shock and death within days.

In Lana Kuykendall’s first surgery, doctors removed the dead skin and tissue, her husband said. A little more tissue was removed during a second and third surgery, but no more infected tissue was found in the last operation Monday, he said.

Group A strep caused the infection, which also spread to her blood, and she is being treated with antibiotics, he said. She was still on a ventilator in the intensive care unit on Tuesday and sedated.

Kuykendall, 42, has no idea how the infection occurred.

“They are saying things are leaning her way. Her vitals are good and her lab results are looking good,” he said. “But this could go either way at any given time.”

Married for four years, the couple met at the scene of an accident — he’s a firefighter and she’s a paramedic with Greenville Hospital System. The twins are healthy and being cared for by family and friends, he said.

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