New Spinal Fusion Procedure Performed at Methodist University Hospital
MEMPHIS — A new way to perform spinal fusion called AxiaLIF is helping some patients suffering from back pain find relief. Neurosurgeons at Methodist University Hospital describe the procedure as a radically new and different technique that stabilizes and fuses the spine.
“AxiaLIF is the first truly percutaneous technique used for fusing the last bone in the spine to the first bone in the tailbone,” said Laverne Lovell, MD, a neurosurgeon at Methodist University Hospital. “That simply means we perform the procedure through a small incision in the skin without cutting any muscles or ligaments.”
Surgeons make a small incision above the tailbone. A channel is created by way of a narrow tube passed through the skin along the underside of the tailbone to the diseased or damaged disc which is then removed and replaced with a special bone growth material. A screw is placed through the disc to restore the disc space.
“This surgical procedure has been named the two-stitch surgery because it takes basically two stitches to close the incision,” explained Dr. Lovell.
Robert Peel was the first patient to undergo this procedure at Methodist University Hospital. Before the procedure he was taking a large amount of pain medication to help control his pain.
“I could do anything I that I wanted to do. I would just hurt all the time,” said Peel. “To tell the truth, I thought I was cooked. I didn’t know there was anything I could do to get relief from the pain.”
Since surgery he feels much better and he’s extremely pleased he is taking a lot less pain medication.
“The pain medication made me tired and since I am on less medication now, I have a lot more energy,” said Peel.
No muscles or ligaments are cut, so recovery is much faster and there is a lot less pain after surgery. To learn more about the neurosurgery program at Methodist University Hospital, visit us on the web at methodisthealth.org.
Judie Fenner, RN, Becomes Certified Legal Nurse Consultant
JACKSON — Judie Fenner, RN, serves as Utilization Management Coordinator for Health Partners and is now a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant (CLNC). “A CLNC is a registered nurse who has successfully mastered the rigorous CLNC Certification Program and consults with attorneys on medically-related cases. The CLNC has the expertise to quickly pinpoint and interpret medical and nursing issues in cases involving health, illness, or injury. The attorney’s legal know-how and the CLNC’s knowledge of the healthcare system and its inner workings combine to produce the strong cases and achieve the best outcomes,” said Fenner.
Fenner believes her 33 years as an RN with medical-surgical experience plus her utilization management experience in a hospital and now with Health Partners have uniquely prepared her for this exciting career change. A Certified Legal Nurse Consultant has valuable skills for interpreting often cryptic medical records and distilling the critical medical facts into language juries can easily understand.
Bill Appling Selected to Medical Group Management/University National Board
Bill Appling, principal of J. William Appling and Associates, a physician management company in Memphis, has been selected to the Medical Group Management/University national board. He is one of sixteen people selected nationally to work with this group on advise and curriculum for university health programs. He will oversee the Southeast section of the country and have an emphasis on the University of Memphis,which was selected as one of the first university relationships.
Cathy Thillen Named Director of Nursing Education and Research
Cathy Thillen has been named the director of nursing education and research at Saint Francis Hospital – Memphis. Thillen began her nursing education at St. Joseph School of Nursing and then completed her bachelor’s and master’s in nursing from the University of Tennessee College of Nursing. She also holds a master’s of education degree from the University of Memphis. Prior to joining Saint Francis last year as an advanced practice nurse for surgical services, she was a faculty member with Methodist Hospital School of Nursing for many years.
Memphis Nurse Executive Herrin Elected President-Elect of AONE
MEMPHIS — Donna Herrin, MSN, RN, CNAA, FACHE, senior vice president and chief nurse executive at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, has been elected president-elect of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), a prestigious national organization of nurse executives and affiliate organization of the American Hospital Association.
Selected through the voting of AONE’s 6,000-plus members, Herrin will serve as AONE’s elect for a one-year term beginning January 1, 2008 and will become president for a one-year term beginning in 2009.
A registered nurse for more than 30 years, Herrin has been an AONE member for 20 years. She has served in a number of AONE national offices, including AONE Nominations Committee representing Region 4 in 1995-96; the AONE Board of Directors for Region 4 in 1998-99; and Treasurer’s of AONE from 2004-2005.
Herrin holds academic appointments as Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and as Assistant Dean for Methodist Practice for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. She received her Master of Science in Nursing from Vanderbilt University, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the State University of New York and an Associate of Science in Nursing from Calhoun Community College. She is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
St. Jude Identifies The Specific Cell That Causes Eye Cancer, Disproving Long-held Theory
MEMPHIS — Researchers found that certain mutations enable specific cells in the retina to multiply and cause eye cancer, a finding that suggests deliberate genetic manipulations might coax an injured brain to repair itself
Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have identified the cell that gives rise to the eye cancer retinoblastoma, disproving a long-standing principle of nerve growth and development. The finding suggests for the first time that it may one day be possible for scientists to induce fully developed neurons to multiply and coax the injured brain to repair itself.
A report of this work appears in the Oct. 19 issue of the journal Cell. Michael Dyer, Ph.D., an associate member in the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology, is the report’s senior author.
Retinoblastoma arises in the retina—the multi-layered, membrane lining the back of the eye that responds to light by generating nerve impulses that are carried into the brain by the optic nerve.
The immediate importance of the St. Jude finding is that it unexpectedly showed that retinoblastoma can arise from fully matured nerves in the retina called horizontal interneurons. This disproves the scientific principle that fully formed, mature nerves cannot multiply like young, immature cells, Dyer said. Human neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease can occur when differentiated nerves in the brain try to multiply, and in the process, trigger a self-destruct program called apoptosis. Differentiation is the process by which cells lose their primitive, stem-cell-like properties that include the ability to grow and multiply, and instead develop specialized shapes and functions.
“For the past 100 years, it’s been ingrained among scientists that differentiated mature nerves are so elaborate that they can’t divide, and if they try to divide, they undergo apoptosis,” Dyer said. “There was no exception to this rule until now. This is the first time that anyone has shown that under certain conditions, a fully mature and differentiated nerve can undergo cell division and multiply.”
The discovery that fully differentiated horizontal interneurons can multiply to form retinoblastoma also challenges the established scientific belief that cancer cells are most aggressive when they are undifferentiated, Dyer said.
“On the contrary, we showed that when certain genes are inactivated in the retina, horizontal neurons that are already differentiated and fully integrated into the brain can start multiplying rapidly and produce a very aggressive cancer,” Dyer said. “This opens an exciting new chapter in the study of neurons and brain tumors.”
An important implication of this finding is that if researchers were able to alter the activity of certain genes in fully developed neurons they might be able to trigger them to multiply temporarily and replace the neighboring neurons that were lost as a result of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Dyer said. “Having nerves duplicate themselves might be more efficient than trying to stimulate nerve replacement by inserting stem cells into the brain, since the existing nerves would already be in the right place to restore missing brain cells,” he said. “However, there is still a lot of research required to determine if it is possible to control gene activity to make this approach practical.”
Dyer’s group made their discovery by developing different populations of mice whose retinas lacked one or more members of the Rb family of genes that include Rb, p107 and p130. This family of related genes is critical to the ability of an immature cell to stop dividing and begin to differentiate so it acquires certain specific characteristics required to do its job in the body.
The St. Jude researchers showed that when the mouse retina had reduced Rb family function, fully differentiated horizontal neurons could multiply while retaining all of the differentiated features of normal horizontal neurons.
As part of the study, the St. Jude team conducted microscopic and biochemical studies to prove that the multiplying cells were horizontal interneurons. Using such techniques, the researchers showed that as the horizontal interneurons multiplied their numbers up to 50-fold, they maintained their normal position in the retina as well as their normal connections to other cells.
If the horizontal interneuron cell division was allowed to proceed unchecked, highly differentiated tumors formed that resembled normal horizontal neurons. Unexpectedly, these tumors were aggressive and spread rapidly.
The investigators concluded that the Rb family’s only task is to prevent mature horizontal interneurons from multiplying as they did when they were immature cells.
Other authors of this paper include Itsuki Ajioka, Rodrigo A. P. Martins, Ildar T. Bayazitov, Stacy Donovan, Samantha Cicero, Kelli Boyd and Stanislav S. Zakharenko (St. Jude); Dianna A. Johnson (University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis) and Sharon Frase (University of Memphis).
This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, Research to Prevent Blindness, Pearle Vision Foundation, the International Retinal Research Foundation, the Whitehall Foundation, NARSAD (The Mental Health Research Association) and ALSAC. Dyer is a Pew Scholar; Zakharenko is a Searle Scholar.
West Clinic Continues Expansion Into Asian Market With Opening Of Shanghai Cancer Center
MEMPHIS — West Clinic recently announced the opening of West Clinic International Shanghai. The 7000 square foot, state-of-the art facility is being opened in collaboration with Shanghai Kanglian Hospital and will provide ‘western-style’ comprehensive cancer care. Shanghai represents the second center opened by Memphis-based West Clinic International during the past year. West Clinic International Singapore opened in October, 2006.
Steven Tucker, MD, FACP will serve as Medical Director for West Clinic International Shanghai. Tucker will continue his current role as Medical Director for West Clinic International Singapore while assuming responsibility for the Shanghai center. Dr. Tucker also serves as President of The International Medical Travel Association and Medical Director for the Accelerated Community Oncology Research Network (ACORN) - Asia Division.
The facility will house full-service laboratory and state-of-the-art imaging technologies including digital x-ray, ultrasound, echocardiography and mammography. The center will offer comprehensive oncology services and treatments including contemporary chemotherapy, novel targeted therapies, biological therapies, immunotherapy, and anti-angiogenic therapy in addition to genetic and nutritional counseling, palliative care, and pain management.
Tennessee’s American College of Physicians Honors Dr. Lee Schwartzberg For Outstanding Community Service
MEMPHIS — Lee Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, Medical Director for The West Clinic, was presented the 2007 American College of Physicians’ Award for Volunteerism and Community Service during the Tennessee Chapter’s 2007 Annual Session held recently.
Rev. G. Scott Morris, MD, Executive Director for the Church Health Center, nominated Dr. Schwartzberg for his dedication and fervent volunteerism at the Center. For over 15 years, Dr. Schwartzberg has provided compassionate treatment for thousands of working uninsured patients at the Midtown center.
Dr. Schwartzberg joined The West Clinic in 1987. He completed his Fellowship in Medical Oncology/Hematology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York where he also served as Chief Resident in Medicine. Dr. Schwartzberg attended medical college at the New York Medical College after receiving B.A. and M.S. degrees from State University of New York at Buffalo. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, Dr. Schwartzberg holds medical licenses in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and New York.
Lifesaving Tool for Stroke Patients Comes to Methodist University Hospital
MEMPHIS — Using the Merci Retrieval System, radiologists at Methodist University Hospital are able to quickly dislodge dangerous blood clots in the brain. The Merci Retrieval System is inserted through a catheter in the groin and fed up to the blood clot in the brain where a corkscrew-like basket collects the clot and pulls it out.
According to the American Stroke Association, stroke is the third leading cause of death and is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability. Every year in the United States 700,000 strokes are diagnosed. Someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds.
Traditionally, stroke patients have had a three hour window for interventional venous treatment where tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) is given to a patient through a vein and a 6 hour window for intra-arterial treatment where tPA is given to a patient through an artery to reduce the damage a stroke can cause. During this window of opportunity, thrombolytic therapy with tPA is given intravenously to help dissolve a blood clot which can reduce brain damage and increase a patient’s chance of survival and recovery. When the Merci Retrieval System is used along with tPA, the window of opportunity stretches to eight hours.
November 2007
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