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Selected news items and updates for the practicing clinician

Zachary Mulkey

Correspondence to Zachary Mulkey , Department of Internal Medicine, TTUHSC, Lubbock, TX.
Email: zachary.mulkey @ttuhsc.edu

• After a recent JAMA meta-analysis regarding the use of hydroxyethyl starch solutions in patients with shock, the FDA is recommending  that the volume expander solutions carry a boxed warning for increased risk of kidney injury and death. See a review story here.


• The FDA has expanded the role of the antibiotic telavancin to include nosocomial pneumonia due to S aureus. It was already approved in 2009 for complicated skin & soft tissue infections. Here is a brief review of the drug.


• Some are calling for the practice of isolating patients colonized with MRSA to stop. This after a study in the NEJM was published showing that daily universal decolonization bathing with chlorhexidine washes was much more effective than active detection/isolation techniques.


• The latest on Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old girl suffering from cystic fibrosis who won a court case allowing her to be placed on the adult lung transplant list.


• I recently viewed a board review DVD that had the expert teacher state their belief that smoking cessation attempts were worthless. Well, a recent Cochrane review seems to say otherwise. Here’s the story and review.

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