Empowering cancer patients to shift their mindsets could improve care, researchers argue

A cancer diagnosis can cause a significant emotional burden for patients and their families. This may persist years into survivorship. As a result, depression and anxiety are two to three times more common in cancer patients than the general population. Experts propose that targeting cancer patients' mindsets could have an impact on their health, functioning, and well-being, and they call for more research in this field.

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More operations are scheduled if doctor is well rested

Researchers have investigated how orthopedic surgeons make decisions regarding surgery, and how the decisions are related to how much of their work shift they have completed. The results show that a patient who meets the surgeon at the end of his or her shift is less likely to be scheduled for surgery.

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Anesthetic drug sevoflurane improves sepsis outcomes, animal study reveals

Patients with sepsis often require surgery or imaging procedures under general anesthesia, yet there is no standard regimen for anesthetizing septic patients. Of volatile (inhaled) anesthetics, sevoflurane and isoflurane are the most commonly used drugs, despite their undetermined mechanisms of action. A novel study suggests that the type of drug used in general anesthesia could be critical to the survival of patients with sepsis.

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