BloodyMary's blog

New research from Johns Hopkins specialists suggests that obese kidney disease patients face not only the usual long odds of a tissue match and organ rejection, but also are significantly less likely than normal-weight people to receive a kidney transplant at all.

The appendix most likely is there to protect us from bad germs by creating and protecting good germs, say scientists from Duke University Medical Center, USA. Most doctors and scientists have believed that the appendix was a redundant organ - serving no purpose at all.

You can read about this latest study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

Infections of the CNS (central nervous system) are rare after heart transplants - but when they do happen they are significant predictors of death (raise the risk of death significantly), says a report in Archives of Neurology (JAMA/Archives).

Most cardiothoracic surgeons (80%) do not believe thoractomy is required for an optimal operation - a contrasting viewpoint from that reflected in existing guidelines from the British Thoracic Society. Recent evidence suggests that the time might be right for a revision of the 2003 BTS guidelines on this specific point.

A woman in France had her gall bladder successfully removed via her vagina - no outer incisions were made - according to an article published in Archives of Surgery (JAMA/Archives).