By Daniel A. Ringold, MD
Endoscopic ultrasonography, or EUS, provides an important bridge between a suspected diagnosis and appropriate therapy. The procedure uses a thin, flexible endoscope containing a tiny ultrasound probe to examine the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract as well as nearby organs such as the pancreas, gall bladder and liver.
EUS enables gastroenterologists specially trained in its use to identify, evaluate and stage a wide range of benign and malignant conditions. Although its therapeutic applications have been expanding recently, EUS still might best be described as an intermediary diagnostic …

By Carolyn R. Kaplan, M.D.
Cancer Therapy and Women’s Fertility
Each year, cancer is estimated to occur in 113 per 100,000 women under age 50 in the United States. Treatment of cancer has improved dramatically over the past several years, and it is estimated that 77% of patients under 45 survive at least 5 years. The trend toward delaying childbearing means that many patients will not have had children when they are diagnosed. While there is recognition that cancer therapy can affect a patient’s fertility, less than 25% of oncologists inform their …

By Robert A. Watson, III, M.D.

Abington Memorial Hospital’s Comprehensive Heart Failure Program provides a full spectrum of care for individuals with heart failure. Working in close collaboration with the patient’s cardiologist, the Heart Failure team is highly skilled in treating individuals with early to late stage disease.
The Program consists of a specialized inpatient heart failure nursing unit, a subspecialty medical Heart Failure Service, outpatient Heart Failure Center and heart failure trained visiting nurses. By this team approach, the Program manages heart failure with a patient- centered approach which utilizes multiple disciplines …

By Jacqueline K. Genova, MD
When a child is having sleep-related difficulties, it’s highly stressful for the whole family. Yet parents might not think of seeking medical advice for the situation unless the child’s physician directly asks them about sleep problems.
Organic and behavioral sleep disorders in childhood are prevalent concerns. At Abington Memorial Hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center, we see pediatric patients between the ages of two and 18 years old. These children originally present in pediatricians’ offices with one or more symptoms, including heavy, persistent snoring, pauses in breathing while asleep, …

By Joseph Lombardi, M.D.
You probably remember the tragic death of actor John Ritter in 2003. Recently, his family partnered with the Thoracic Aortic Disease (TAD) Coalition to shed light on the condition that took his life: aortic dissection. In addition to TAD Coalition’s “Ritter Rules,” which focus on recognizing, treating and preventing the condition, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology also released new guidelines designed to prevent unnecessary deaths.  Aortic dissection occurs when the wall of the aorta, the body’s main blood vessel, splits and blood flows …

By Ashish B. Patel, MD
In radiation therapy, higher doses produce better tumor control. Yet doses typically must be fractionated in order to limit damage or risk to nearby healthy tissue.
Technological developments years ago brought the introduction of noninvasive stereotactic radiosurgery for the brain, with greater beam precision allowing a higher radiation dose to be used in fewer treatments. This precise beam accurately targeted the lesion while posing low risk to surrounding tissue. Stereotactic radiosurgery achieved excellent results in treating certain brain tumors, with control rates equivalent to surgical resection.
Recently, stereotactic …

By William A. Van Decker, MD
Irrespective of details and one’s personal views, many people, especially physicians,   are pleased that a prominent part of Public Policy discussions both nationally and locally for the past two years have involved Health Policy. Health Policy is a key building block of any group civilization. While these discussions have clearly been driven by pragmatic economics, none of us should forget why health care delivered through health policy is so important.
A healthy population, physically and mentally, is a productive population.  It feels well enough to perform …

By D. Mark Zebley, MD
Natural orifice surgery has been gaining attention lately for its benefits as a minimally invasive approach for some conditions. Yet the concept is not all that new. For more than 10 years, Abington Memorial Hospital has been one of the few institutions in the Delaware Valley performing transanal endoscopic microsurgery—known as a TEM procedure—on patients with large rectal polyps.
While most polyps can be removed during a colonoscopy, some require an operation. TEM allows experienced surgeons to excise polyps that are broader-based or located higher in the …

By Guy A. Lee, MD
Middle-aged and older patients commonly present with neurogenic claudication, the classic nerve-related radiating leg and buttock pain caused by lumbar spinal stenosis. Imaging will typically show degenerative factors, including the narrowing of the midline sagittal spinal canal and possibly also narrowing between the facet superior articulating process, the posterior vertebral margin and nerve root canal.
The narrowing and compression of spinal stenosis is believed to cause leg, buttock and groin pain for about 1.2 million Americans. Those who experience mild or moderate symptoms typically have pain that …

By Andrew M. Star, MD
Hip arthroplasty has been a successful procedure for more than four decades. Yet, as doctors performing this surgery, we continually found ourselves repeating a list of “don’ts” to our patients as they faced the long recovery after hip replacement surgery: “Don’t get in a car,” “Don’t bend over,” “Don’t sleep on your side,” and other restrictions.
This discouraging, but important, post-operative advice was a by-product of standard  arthroplasty, in which the surgeon removes the hip joint using a lateral or posterior approach, cutting muscles, ligaments and tendons …