Pain is a constant in most any hospital emergency department, or e.d., and its treatment and management is a continual challenge. Health care teams working in these high-pressure environments see a high volume of patients with everything from life-threatening trauma to relatively minor health care needs. And they are on the front line of pain control for tens of thousands of people each year. Our nation’s concern about opioid use and the related search for non-addictive pain interventions is one force behind a new program at barnes-jewish hospital: P.T. (Physical Therapy) in the E.D.

Stroke recovery depends on quick thinking and fast action for everyone involved, from bystander to surgeon. One team of specialists, working to shave minutes off treatment time, has risen to the challenge.

People who suffer itching with no clear cause may have previously unrecognized immune system defects. “As doctors, we throw things like antihistamines, ointments and lotions at patients who suffer chronic itching, but if there is something profoundly abnormal about the immune system — as it appears there is — then we can’t solve the itching until we address those underlying causes,” says washington university dermatologist and researcher Brian Kim, MD.

(LEFT) MEDICAL STUDENT AMY XU AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR BRIAN KIM, MD, FOUND THAT IMMUNE SYSTEM DEFECTS MAY HELP EXPLAIN CHRONIC ITCHING.
Photo by Robert Boston
 

For patients with carotid artery disease, the risk of stroke is a serious threat. Until recently, those who needed surgery to reduce that risk had two options: an open procedure called Carotid Endarterectomy or minimally invasive Transfemoral Carotid Angioplasty and Stenting (CAS) through an incision in the groin. Neither is ideal.

Endarterectomy can lead to a painful recovery and temporary swallowing problems. And people who undergo transfemoral CAS have a higher risk of suffering a stroke during the procedure than those who have endarterectomy.

04/22/2018

There has been a significant shift in how we treat Alzheimer’s over the past 10 years. Dr. David Michael Holtzman, Washington University neurologist and chief of neurology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, joins Dr. Eric C. Leuthardt and Dr. Albert H. Kim, Washington University neurosurgeons at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, to discuss the state of Alzheimer’s research.

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