Word: risk
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...most part, however, doctors are happy that anesthetics indeed work and seem to be safe. Used at the right doses in healthy people, the drugs rarely cause serious complications or side effects; the risk of death in patients undergoing general anesthesia, for example, is 1 in 250,000. But recent inquiries into how these strange chemicals act on the cellular level have uncovered a troubling long-term possibility: that general anesthetics may potentially contribute to cognitive impairment in vulnerable patients such as the very young and very...
...number of H1N1 cases continues to climb in the U.S., researchers are collecting more and more data on the spread of the pandemic flu and getting a clearer picture of its victims - who is most vulnerable to H1N1, how the most severe cases progress and which risk factors tend to contribute to life-threatening disease. That data is now helping public-health officials identify some critical H1N1 trends, which may enable them to treat patients more effectively and hopefully control the disease as it peaks in the coming months...
...over age 50; H1N1 was least likely to turn fatal in patients under age 17. Yet with all the focus in the media on the vulnerability of younger patients to infection, the elderly may have been somewhat dangerously overlooked, says Louie. Although older patients may not be at high risk of getting infected in the first place (thanks to their residual immunity to the virus from previous outbreaks of H1N1), their risk of death from the disease may be higher than that of younger patients, primarily because of their higher rates of underlying conditions, such as heart disease, reduced lung...
...Indeed, the state's data suggest that chronic underlying conditions are among the main risk factors for developing H1N1 disease severe enough to require hospital care. In both young and old patients who were hospitalized for swine flu (741 cases in total), ailments that complicate the flu were common: some 60% of children and 72% of adults had conditions including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and gastrointestinal disease. (See how to prevent illness...
...California data also reveal a potentially new risk factor for H1N1: obesity. Obese individuals were disproportionately represented in the state's sample of hospitalized cases - 58% of adults age 20 or older registered as obese, and 43% of these morbidly so. Those with excessive body-mass-index measurements tend to have other medical conditions related to weight that may put them at risk of suffering more severe infection with H1N1. Being overweight can increase sleep apnea and reduce lung function, for example, both of which can impair a heavier person's ability to overcome a respiratory infection like influenza. Among...