Knee or hip replacement is a major surgery, and many people must lean hard on their spouses to care for them during weeks to months of recuperation. But all that hassle is absolutely worthwhile for the one providing care for their temporarily disabled partner, a new study suggests. Spouses experience significant improvements in their quality of life following their partner’s knee or hip replacement procedure, researchers reported at a meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons this week in San Diego. “It is well studied that the patient’s quality of life improves following surgery, but now we know it will also improve for spouses,” lead researcher Dr. Nicolas Jozefowski, a recent graduate of Loyola University School of Medicine in Chicago, said in a news release. “Most spouses assume a caregiving role when their partner has joint replacement surgery and they are sacrificing a bit in terms of their quality of life, but we can show it will improve with these data,” Jozefowski added. “Patients can have less pain, and couples can do more things together.” Joint replacement surgery has become more common as the U.S. population grows and ages, researchers said in background notes.  About 544,000 total hip replacements and 790,000 total knee replacements take place each year. In fact, the surgery has become so rote that it’s now performed mostly on an outpatient…  read on >  read on >

An awkward fall while running, skiing or playing sports can cause knee injuries that sideline players and increase their risk of future arthritis. But most of the time, there’s nothing wrong with their noses, and that might prove the key to repairing their knees and getting them back on their feet, a new study suggests. Replacement cartilage engineered from the nasal septum — the cartilage wall that separates the left and right airways in your nose — can be used to repair even the most complex knee injuries, researchers report in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “Nasal septum cartilage cells have particular characteristics that are ideally suited to cartilage regeneration,” senior researcher Ivan Martin said in a news release. He’s head of biomedicine with the University of Basel in Switzerland. For example, it has been shown that these cells can counteract inflammation in joints, researchers said. Torn cartilage in the knee can create long-term problems for active people, because this tissue does not heal itself. Cartilage forms a buffer between bones, and a loss of cartilage will eventually lead to arthritis. The new knee repair process involves extracting cells from a tiny piece of a patient’s nasal septum, and then growing the cells in a lab on a scaffold made of soft fibers, researchers explained in background notes. The newly grown cartilage is then cut…  read on >  read on >

Sleep is a critical component for concussion recovery among kids, a new study reports. Limiting naps during the day and getting about seven hours of sleep each night in the first week after a concussion appears to speed up recuperation, researchers reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Getting seven hours of sleep each night doubled a child’s chances of recovering quickly during the first week after a concussion, researchers also found. On the other hand, every hour spent napping during the daytime decreased by 12% the likelihood their concussion symptoms would diminish within the first week, results show. “Youth who sleep more during the day or who sleep too much or too little each day may be at risk for slower concussion symptom resolution,” said lead researcher Jingzhen Ginger Yang, principal investigator with the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Center for Injury Research and Policy in Columbus, Ohio. “Good sleep hygiene, including limiting daytime sleep/naps and instead focusing on getting enough sleep at night, could help speed concussion recovery,” she added in a news release. About 2 million kids younger than 18 suffer a concussion each year in the U.S., researchers said in background notes. It’s common for kids recuperating from a concussion to have bad sleep, with up to 34% reporting excessive sleep, loss of sleep or trouble falling asleep, researchers added. For the study,…  read on >  read on >

Firefighters might face a higher risk of brain cancers caused by exposure to chemicals in fire extinguishers, a new small-scale study says. Veteran firefighters appear to have a higher risk of brain tumors called gliomas, which can be caused by gene mutations linked to flame retardant chemicals called haloalkanes, researchers reported in a study published March 10 in the journal Cancer.  Previous studies have highlighted a mutational pattern, or “signature” in gliomas linked to haloalkane exposure, researchers said. “In these data, we confirm detection of this signature in a cohort of individuals likely highly exposed to haloalkanes, i.e., long-term firefighters,” a team led by senior researcher Dr. Elizabeth Claus, director of medical research at the Yale University School of Public Health, wrote. Gliomas are the most common type of brain cancer, researchers said in background notes. About one-third of all brain tumors are gliomas, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. For the study, researchers found 17 firefighters with gliomas participating in a University of California-San Francisco study of adults with this form of brain tumor. The firefighters had been on the job for an average of 22 years. They compared the tumors of the firefighters with 18 other participants in the brain tumor study who worked in other fields.  “As firefighters have exposure to such chemical agents, we examined mutational signatures in glioma brain tumors diagnosed…  read on >  read on >

A mother’s diet during pregnancy can influence her child’s risk of ADHD and autism, a new study says. In particular, the unhealthy hallmarks of a typical Western diet appeared to increase a child’s risk of developmental disorders, researchers reported in the journal Nature Metabolism. “The greater a woman’s adherence to a Western diet in pregnancy – high in fat, sugar, and refined products while low in fish, vegetables, and fruit — the greater the risk appears to be for her child developing ADHD or autism,” lead researcher Dr. David Horner of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark said in a news release. Even slight moves toward a more Western diet were linked to a 66% increased risk of ADHD and a 122% increased risk of autism, researchers found. But this also means that even small dietary adjustments away from a Western pattern of eating could potentially reduce a child’s risk of developmental disorders, researchers added. For this study, researchers started by identifying more than 500 Norwegian 10-year-olds diagnosed with a developmental disorder, and then analyzed what their moms ate during pregnancy. In that group, they found significant associations between an expecting mother’s diet and later ADHD and autism diagnoses among their children. A Western dietary pattern was tied to a 53% increased risk of any developmental disorder, results showed. The team then tested those associations…  read on >  read on >

Sleep-deprived night shift nurses are at greater risk for the common cold and other infectious diseases, a new study says. Shift work and its impact on quality sleep can wreak havoc on nurses’ immune systems, making them more vulnerable to infection, researchers report in the journal Chronobiology International. “Sleep debt and irregular shift patterns, including night work, not only compromise nurses’ immune health but could also impact their ability to provide high-quality patient care,” senior researcher Siri Waage said in a news release. She’s coordinator of the Norwegian Competence Center for Sleep Disorders at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. Nurses who got up to two hours’ less sleep than they needed had a 33% higher risk of the common cold, and the risk was double among nurses with more than two hours of sleep debt, researchers said. Their risk of pneumonia and bronchitis also increased dramatically with a lack of sleep, running nearly 2.3 times higher with moderate sleep debt and 3.9 times higher with severe sleep debt, results show. Sinusitis and GI infections also were more common among nurses who weren’t getting enough sleep, researchers added. For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 1,300 Norwegian nurses. Results showed that shift work, particularly on the night shift, was associated with higher risk of infection. However, night shift work was solely linked to an…  read on >  read on >