FREE REPORT. Your key pointers to a life-transforming diet

Find out the best diet for you in one of four free reports we'll give you when you join the WDDTY community. We'll also send you up-to-the-moment health news and advice twice a week, packed full of insights that may well transform your own health.

email to friend Printer friendly

Family matters

Catheter use - don’t let facts spoil a cherished procedure

The catheter is an established stand-by procedure despite that fact that there hasn’t been a single positive study to support its use in 20 years. And two more studies published recently only add to this negative picture.

One study involved 5051 patients who were fitted with catheters either before high-risk surgery, or while they were in intensive care, or being treated for severe heart failure. The researchers found that patients without a catheter fared just as well, and death rates were the same for both the catheter and non-catheter groups.

The second study, which involved 433 patients with severe heart failure, also could find no benefits with catheter use. In fact, the catheters were responsible for 22 per cent more adverse events, although at least they didn’t kill anyone.

So, in the face of all this evidence, will the doctor finally throw away the catheter? Now, repeat after us, medicine is a belief system, not a science . . . (J Am Med Assoc, 2005; 294: 1625-33).

Catheter use - don’t let facts spoil a cherished procedure - Medicine is more often a belief system than a science, and doctors invariably cling to practices they know and love, irrespective of the data. Take, f...

Adverse events in hospital are common - As much as 10 per cent of patients entering hospital will experience preventable "adverse events", according to a study of two UK hospitals. ...

Appetite Suppressants: They cause heart failure, doctors discover - Anti-obesity drugs and appetite suppressants are causing heart attacks, doctors have discovered. All the patients had been healthy, with no history of...

Oral antifungals associated with heart failure - Oral and intravenous forms of the antifungal itraconazole (Sporanox) have been found to lead to an increased risk of congestive heart failure. ...

Nsaids and diuretics causing heart failure - Doctors may be increasing the risk of heart failure among older patients if they are mixing diuretics with NSAIDs (non steroidal anti inflammatory dru...

Cold - not bugs - leads to high winter death rates - New evidence shows that being cold is responsible for more preventable (excess) deaths than the flu in winter.

Eating fish will reduce risk of heart failure - Eating fish reduces the risk of sudden death in men, latest studies confirm. ...

Beta blockers may have no effect in heart failure - Two new studies show that the beta blockers bucindolol and carvedilol have little or no effect in cases of severe heart failure. ...

The British Institute for the Identification & Treatment of Allergic Disorders

How You Beat Asthma
How To Beat Your M.E.
How You Beat ADHD
How You Beat Arthritis
How You Beat Backpain
How You Beat Depression How You Beat Pain
How You Beat The Menopause
How You Beat Heart Problems
WDDTY Health Shop

Register for our health updates and free gifts.
First Name:
Email: