Brigham Remains a Leader in Full and Partial Face Transplantation

2011, Boston, MA, USA, LIGHTCHASER PHOTOGRAPHY, Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Plastic Surgery in coordination with the hospitals entire transplant team and the New England Organ Bank worked throughout an entire day to replace the soft facial tissues of Dallas Wiens, 25, from Dallas TX, who flew to Boston late at night for the procedure. The transplant team, led by Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, began their surgical procedures shorty after 3 a.m. and Dallas Wiens was transported to the BWH ICU shortly before 9 p.m. at night. ( lightchaser photography image by j. kiely jr. © 2011 )Face transplants are still infrequent enough that every one of them is considered a remarkable feat of medical collaboration and expertise. However, they no longer garner the news headlines that the first transplant did when it was performed in France in 2005.
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The Brigham Makes The Push Toward Same-Day Joint Replacement

"Arrow sign for outpatient parking in front of parking lot, horizontal with copy space to right."Five years ago, Vivek Shah, MD, a hip and knee replacement surgeon, replaced the right hip of an 85-year-old woman. After the routine surgery, she stayed in the hospital for three days. A few years later, she visited Dr. Shah when she needed her left hip replaced.
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Microendoscopic Surgery Offers Alternative for Spine Patients

microendoscopy image of a spineAt Brigham and Women’s Hospital, spine surgeon Andrew Simpson, MD, focuses a large portion of his practice on microendoscopic spine surgery, a minimally invasive technique used to treat patients with a range of spinal disorders—including disc herniation, spinal stenosis and sciatica.
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Neurotoxicity Associated With CAR T Cell Therapy

drawing of a Chimirc Antigen ReceptorChimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy has become an important tool in the treatment of relapsed and refractory malignancy. However, it is associated with significant and unique neurological toxicities.

A multidisciplinary team of clinicians at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) are among the first in the nation to study this issue as a team prospectively; their findings are about to be published in the journal Brain.
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New Center Addresses Research and Treatment Challenges in Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer

colorectal cancer cells stained under a microscopeColorectal cancer remains a major health problem in the United States. It’s the third most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death.

While the incidence of colorectal cancer is decreasing somewhat in the population, it has increased by 51 percent in people under the age of 50. This trend is expected to continue, with an estimated 90 percent increase in colon cancer incidence and 124 percent increase in rectal cancer incidence by 2030.
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Taking Aim at Molecular Targets for Meningiomas & Pituitary Tumors

black and white image of DNA double helix
Image courtesy of Wenya Linda Bi, MD, PhD

Meningiomas and pituitary tumors traditionally have been regarded as surgically treated disease. However, some patients with these tumors face recurrence, premature morbidity and mortality. This challenge has motivated researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to zero in on molecular targets that shed light on prognosis and suggest novel pathways for biological treatments.
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A Growing Case for Segmentectomy for Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers

photo of lung tissueDetection of lung cancers at an early stage, combined with advances in imaging technologies and surgical techniques, bolster the rationale for choosing VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery) segmentectomy for patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
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Pulmonary Genetics Center Demystifies Testing and Empowers Physicians

Situs inversus, a congenital condition in which the major visceral organs are reversed from normal positions. A physical examination confirmed the position of the heart.Over the past 20 years, more than 100 genes have been found that cause specific lung diseases, most of which can be tested for by DNA sequencing. However, interpreting and acting upon genetic test results can be a challenging task for any physician not trained in genetics.  The Pulmonary Genetics Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is bridging the gap by providing this expertise to patients and referring physicians and assisting them in navigating this complex new field.
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After the ICU: Patients’ Stories Spark Insight into ICU Survivorship

Daniella Lamas headshot and cover of her new book "You Can Stop Humming Now"What happens to patients after the ICU? That is the question examined by physician/writer Daniela Lamas, MD, in her book, You Can Stop Humming Now: A Doctor’s Stories of Life, Death and In Between.
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Research Efforts Focus on Link Between Hormonal Contraceptives and HIV Infection

drawing of the female reproductive tractAccording to the World Health Organization, more than half of all married or in-union women of reproductive age use some form of contraception. Additionally, the number of women around the globe who either use contraception or have an unmet need for family planning is expected to grow by more than 900 million over the next decade.
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