Surgery

There’s little debate about the positive health benefits that come from walking, whether you take a stroll every evening or you power walk your way to a finish line during a charity walk. Of course, as we’ve previously noted, the more steps you take, the better (though health benefits seem…

If you walk past a mirror, it’s hard to avoid a bit of startle, especially if you have one image of yourself (perhaps based on your look from several decades ago) and yet you see a reflection that more candidly shows what you look like today. Some of us gracefully…

Back in the Fall, we noted the looming public health concern of an epidemic increase in bone fractures that may arise from the aging of our population. With perhaps justified concern, the fracture that may be the most troubling is that of a hip fracture. Data about the nature and…

While it’s old news that surgery can be a risky proposition for anyone in their later years, a new study out of Yale University published in JAMA Network Surgery makes the incidence of serious risk very clear. According to this research, which examined the post-surgery course of about 1000 older…

If you think you’re in the market for a hip replacement, don’t worry, you’re not alone. It’s estimated that approximately 500,000 hip replacement surgeries are performed each year. That’s a lot of surgery and it represents a lot of expense, especially for the Medicare-insured population.    There have been recent…

Some startling statistics to consider: Adults over age 65 make up 16% of the US population yet account for 33% of all out-patient surgeries and 40% of all in-patient surgeries. That’s a lot of older people going under the knife, and not always with successful outcomes. As Paula Span recently…