Posted in Accident & Injury, Drug & Medical Devices on April 30, 2013

Senior citizens, are you taking of the 110 drugs doctors say you should avoid? A new report shows that doctors in the U.S. are too frequently prescribing potentially harmful drugs to older patients. The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that one out of every five senior citizens receiving Medicare...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on April 29, 2013

The contraceptive drugs Yasmin and Yaz have been associated with a number of serious, potentially fatal side effects. These include heart attacks, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, blood clots, gallbladder issues and stroke. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against Bayer, the manufacturer of the contraceptives. Last month, Bayer agreed to pay $24 million...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on April 22, 2013

An ingredient used in many products touted to help you lose weight and build muscle is deadly and illegal, according to the government. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to not buy any dietary supplements that contain the ingredient dimethylamylamine, or DMAA. The most serious DMAA side effects include: Death Heart...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on April 14, 2013

Specialty pharmacies have been in the news several times in recent months. First was the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak last October that was linked to contaminated steroids from the New England Compounding Center. Then last month, a New Jersey compounding pharmacy issued a nationwide recall of all its products due to a mold risk...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on April 13, 2013

Would you trust a robot to perform or help perform surgery on you? Not that long ago, the idea would have seemed like science fiction. But last year, hundreds of thousands of surgeries were completed with the assistance of a robot. One of the most popular robotic surgical devices in the U.S. is named...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on April 10, 2013

By Arthur Elk Do you worry about taking prescription medications? Probably not. Most of us trust that before a drug goes to market it has undergone rigorous testing. However, sometimes, even with testing, a drug can make it to market with deadly results. Less than a year after being approved, Omontys, a drug used...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on April 2, 2013

For years, Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary DePuy have been under intense scrutiny regarding their faulty ASR artificial hips. The metal-on-metal design was blamed for causing pain and tissue damage and resulted in a high rate of revision surgeries. Johnson & Johnson had denied any blame and had refused to compensate patients. A...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on April 1, 2013

Are you one of the millions of Americans with Type 2 Diabetes? If you are, you probably have struggled with ways to keep the disease in check. For many, exercise and diet are enough. For others, medication is necessary to regulate their blood glucose levels. Two popular diabetes drugs—Januvia and Byetta—have been prescribed to...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on March 22, 2013

Compounding pharmacies are making news again. In October, three lots of injected steroids produced by The New England Compounding Center were recalled after the compounds were linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak. Now, the New Jersey Health Department is advising hospitals, health care providers and pharmacists to immediately stop using all products produced by...

Posted in Drug & Medical Devices on March 13, 2013

By Arthur Elk The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning Tuesday that a common antibiotic can cause a potentially fatal irregular heart rhythm in some patients. Concerns about azithromycin, sold as Zithromax or Zmax, were first raised last May when a study in the New England Journal of Medicine compared the risk...