Cancer Drug to Treat Glue Ear in Kids??!

I read with astound that a class of cancer drugs known as VEGF Inhibitors (ie, Avastin and Erbitux) used to treat colorectal, lung, breast, and kidney cancers can also be used to potentially treat a type of chronic ear infection known as glue ear... at least in theory and in mice. Glue ear is when an individual suffers from repetitive ear infections or upper respiratory infections to the point where the fluid in the ear turns into a maple syrup consistency. It's thick, sticky and tough …

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Gluing Cut Blood Vessels Together

Gluing blood vessels together, just like gluing a cut garden hose together, does not seem like a great idea at first, but Stanford researchers just might have figured out how to do this safely and effectively. Over the past century and still currently used today is to hand-sew the cut ends of the blood vessel together using stitches. This method of reattaching blood vessels is time-consuming and tedious, especially when the blood vessels are tiny. In this new glue method which is FIVE ti…

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Novel Treatment for Glue Ear?

Glue ear is the layman's term for thick mucoid effusion of the middle ear, usually due to chronic ear infections . The fluid itself is like maple syrup and usually treated with  ear tube placement followed by suctioning as much of the fluid out as possible. However, given there is always some residual present, antibiotic ear drops with steroids is often prescribed. Unfortunately, these patients are at higher risk of requiring repeated sets of tubes after the body spits them out. W…

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