News Updates issue3


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Selected news items and updates for the practicing clinician

Zachary Mulkey

Correspondence to Zachary Mulkey						, Department of Internal Medicine, TTUHSC, Lubbock, TX. 

Email: zachary.mulkey @ttuhsc.edu

 

	 After a recent JAMA  meta-analysis regarding the use of hydroxyethyl starch solutions in  patients with shock, the  FDA is recommending  that the volume  expander solutions carry a boxed warning for increased risk of kidney injury  and death. See a review story here.



 	 The FDA  has expanded the role of the antibiotic telavancin to include nosocomial  pneumonia due to S aureus. It was  already approved in 2009 for complicated skin & soft tissue infections.  Here is a brief  review of the drug.



	Some are calling for  the practice of isolating patients colonized with MRSA to stop. This after a study in  the NEJM was published showing that daily universal decolonization bathing  with chlorhexidine washes was much more effective than active  detection/isolation techniques.



	 The latest  on Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old girl suffering from cystic fibrosis who  won a court case allowing her to be placed on the adult lung transplant list.



	 I recently viewed a board review DVD that  had the expert teacher state their belief that smoking cessation attempts were  worthless. Well, a recent Cochrane review seems to say otherwise. Here’s the story and review.




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