Swab Culture is Inaccurate Test for Determining Tonsillitis

A fascinating study came out in June 2017 that compared the bacteria found on the tonsil surface by swab versus bacteria found within a core needle biopsy versus bacteria found within the dissected tonsil's core. The take home finding is that a swab culture poorly identifies the bacteria causing recurrent tonsillitis . Based on 54 children who underwent tonsillectomy , researchers performed a swab, needle biopsy, and core dissection of all tonsils removed. Culture results obtained from…

6/28/2017 0

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Can Acupuncture Treat Vocal Cord Lesions?

According to Chinese researchers , acupuncture certainly can help with phono-traumatic vocal cord lesions ( nodules , polyps , or chronic laryngitis). In their study , 123 patients with these pathologies were than divided into genuine acupuncture, fake acupuncture, and no acupuncture groups. The genuine acupuncture group received needles in nine voice-related acupoints for 30 minutes, two times a week for 6 weeks, whereas the fake acupuncture group received blunted needles that merely stimu…

8/26/2015 0

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Acupuncture Helps with Tonsillectomy Pain

Back in 2013, I blogged how acupuncture may help with pain after tonsillectomy in children [ link ]. This was based on a study by Dr. Ochi published in Dec 2013 on 56 children. Another study has been published in April 2015 on 59 children by a different group of researchers which support Dr. Ochi's findings as well as another in 2019 found acupuncture helpful in adults. Although no significant differences in the amount of opioid medications administered or total post-anesthesia care t…

4/13/2015 0

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Large Thyroid Nodules Have Higher Risk of Cancer Even if Needle Biopsy is Normal

A recent 2015 study revealed that large thyroid nodules (over 3cm) have a higher risk of cancer and that needle biopsies are not very accurate in diagnosing cancer in such large nodules. This is hardly the first study to demonstrate this. In a 2009 study , surgeons at the University of Wisconsin found that fine needle aspiration  biopsy  (FNAB) in 26 of 52 FNAB reported as benign (50.0%) turned out to be either neoplastic (22) or malignant (4) on final pathologic analysis after  thyroidect…

1/27/2015 1

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Acupuncture Alleviates Pain After Tonsillectomy in Children

The study showed that acupuncture significantly decreased pain after tonsillectomy in children (2-17 years of age) with reported pain levels before acupuncture of 5.52 (SD=2.28) out of 10 which fell to 1.92 (SD=2.43) after acupuncture. This retrospective research was conducted in 31 patients who underwent a tonsillectomy within a 3 month period of time by Dr. James Ochi , one of only a handful of dual board-certified ENT and medical acupuncture in the United States. No study patients rece…

12/14/2013 0

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Compact EMG System for Targeted Muscle Injections

An EMG system ( E lectro M yo G raphy) is a critical piece of equipment when it comes to targeted muscle injections in and around the neck, especially when you cannot see or feel the muscle. This scenario is especially true when dealing with spasmodic dysphonia for which targeted botox injections are quite helpful. Given the muscles that need to be injected are contained inside the voicebox and not able to be seen and felt from outside the neck, accurate injection is quite difficult withou…

1/12/2013 1

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Ear Pain Causes Based on Acupuncture Principles

When a patient complains of ear pain or pressure , I wonder if an acupuncturist sees a problem with the whole body rather than a problem just around the ear itself...

9/17/2012 0

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Allergy Shots in the Leg? Abdomen?

It is not uncommon that we have patients that ask if allergy shots can be administered in the leg (or other part of the body) rather than the usual behind the upper arm. Before we answer that question, let's ask why we given it in the upper arm in the first place! 1) Easy to access 2) Easy to monitor for any adverse reaction 3) All the good studies done are based on injections administered to the upper arm 4) No good studies performed determining whether injections done at other b…

2/21/2012 1

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RANDOM: Media Confuses PA Students with Med Students in Medical Error

So I read this disturbing news report on MSNBC titled " Needle error puts 50 people at risk in N.M. " where "MED" students improperly pricked multiple patients while testing blood sugar during a health fair. Later in the article , the story stated "Students from UNM's physician assistant program conducted the free blood sugar tests during the cultural center's American Indian Week Pueblo Days." I should hope that a reputable news media outlet like MSNB…

5/14/2010 0

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Needle Biopsy of Thyroid Masses Misidentifies 50% of Thyroid Cancers!

Surgeons at the University of Wisconsin found that fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) in 26 of 52 FNAB reported as benign (50.0%) turned out to be either neoplastic (22) or malignant (4) on final pathologic analysis after thyroidectomy . Among patients with nondiagnostic FNAB results, the risk of malignant neoplasms was 27.3%. Even for smaller thyroid masses , FNAB is still not 100% accurate with a falsely negative rate of around 10% . Why is that? Well, one must keep in mind that the…

7/26/2009 0

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