News

Utrecht, Netherlands -- According to a recent Dutch study, one epidural injection of steroids and local anesthetics may not ease long-term pain for shingles patients.

Great Neck, N.Y. -- More than 90 percent of U.S. adults who have or have had a scar say they were unaware that using an over-the-counter product to help heal their scar might actually make it worse.

Rochester, N.Y. -- Results of a recently released Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll suggest that an increasing percentage of Americans are undergoing invasive cosmetic treatments that sometimes are not covered by medical insurance.

Boston; Dermatology practices are adding staff members and increasing their efficiency and productivity to deal with frustrating wait times, according to Alexa Boer Kimball, M.D., director of the Clinical Unit, Research Trials in Skin, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham Womens Hospital. Dr. Boer Kimball is also chair of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Workforce Task Force.

It looked at statin use and cancer incidence in general, and found the drugs failed to statistically improve cancer rates across the board.

Dermatologists will inevitably increase compliance among ethnic patients when treating scalp conditions such as seborrheic dermatitis or atopic dermatitis if they inquire about the types of hair products the patient normally uses.

The concept looks good from the outside: Offset the financial challenges of running a traditional dermatology practice by adding fee-for-service aesthetic procedures. However, dermatologists who have done it say that successfully launching or expanding a cosmetic practice requires more than whim. Dermatologists need to weigh the costs, realize the commitment they need to make to these patients and have the time to devote to an aesthetic practice.

National report ? Working with medical residents and students is a means of keeping pace with new technologies in dermatological practice for some clinicians.

National report -- Dermatologists likely will exercise more caution in prescribing the topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs) Elidel cream (pimecrolimus, Novartis) and Protopic ointment (tacrolimus, Astellas Pharma) in response to the Food and Drug Administration's decision to add "black box" warnings to these drugs' labels, an expert tells Dermatology Times.

Palm Beach, Fla. ? There has been a significant growth in the dispensing of cosmeceutical products, driven by consumer demand, which has taken the place of dispensing of prescription products as the mainstay of the dermatologist's dispensing practice, says a Florida dermatologist.

Stephen Stone, M.D., dermatologist, professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Ill., and new president of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), says that an organization worth volunteering for is, probably, worth leading.

Stocks carry the most risk, but provide the best return over the long run; bonds are not as risky as stocks, but have a lower return; cash provides the most safety for your principal, but with earnings that may barely keep up with inflation.

Since our legal system provides very little downside for filing a frivolous lawsuit, we can expect this problem to get worse before it gets better.

He didn't need to make the most money ? he had to go back to caring for patients, and he had to share that message with others.

San Francisco ? While physician extenders represent one potential solution for underserved patient populations, they must only be used in supervised settings, according to an American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) official.

On a larger scale, he notes that few, if any, medical conferences could survive as currently structured without heavy subsidies from the pharmaceutical industry.

Some patients may simply prefer general anesthesia, but the tumescent technique of using large volumes of very dilute local anesthetics allows in-office procedures to be conducted safely and effectively.

It looked at statin use and cancer incidence in general, and found the drugs failed to statistically improve cancer rates across the board.

Sixty percent of families in which three or more members have melanoma also have a germline mutation in the p16 sequence, which, when functioning properly, inhibits CDK4 and activates RB1 (retinoblastoma). When the p16 function of human melanocytes is blocked, senescence is delayed.

To begin, ask the patient what they expect. How much downtime do they want: one day, two days, three days or none? Next, select the superficial peeling agent based on what the doctor and the patient are comfortable with.

It is a higher-viscosity hyaluronic acid manufactured by Q-Med, the same company that manufacturers Restylane for Medicis. Medicis purchased the marketing rights for Restylane in the United States and invested the time and money to get the filler approved. At some point, Medicis undoubtedly will obtain approval for Perlane and add this to its offerings.

New products in the pipeline will add more versatility to fillers, but until they arrive, Dr. Cohen suggests alternatives such as using a 32-gauge needle to fill in etched-in lines in the nasolabial folds and vertical lip lines.

The emphasis on blood vessel quantity over quality might explain why efforts to grow new vessels in patients with ischemic complications by simply supplying cells with VEGF have fared poorly.

Dermatologists will inevitably increase compliance among ethnic patients when treating scalp conditions such as seborrheic dermatitis or atopic dermatitis if they inquire about the types of hair products the patient normally uses.

Tucson, Ariz. ? Challenging conventional wisdom about treatment modalities might be considered risky business for some dermatologists, but for Norman Levine, M.D., it just comes naturally.

PTC is characterized by intracranial pressure exceeding 250 mmHg without the presence of a lesion or infection.

Las Vegas ? Hormonal therapy with an estrogen-progestin oral contraceptive (OC) can be a useful adjunct for acne treatment in adult women who fail to respond to traditional topical and systemic therapies, according to Julie C. Harper, M.D., at the Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference.

Of all topical therapies used for psoriasis, calcipotriene (Dovonex/Daivonex) ranks as the single most commonly prescribed product worldwide.

As expected, based on experience using alefacept in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis, onset of response was somewhat slow. Over time, however, the treatment was associated with clinical improvement in most patients without any serious safety concerns.

In patients for whom rheumatologists once hoped to achieve 20 percent improvement, Dr. Lisse says that with TNF inhibitors, "We're now looking for 50 or 70 percent, or even remission."