Man Files $15 million Lawsuit Against NYC Citi Bike Claiming Smell Loss From Bike Crash

Image by Pharos of WikipediaIn 2013, a man rented a bicycle from New York City's Citi Bike program. Apparently while riding this rental bike, the front wheel struck a wheelstop installed near a bicycle docking station which the man did not notice, flipping him resulting in head trauma. This head trauma resulted in permanent smell and taste loss. [link]The wheelstop is meant to prevent cars from from backing into bike stations, but the lawsuit alleges...

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30% of Patients with Reflux will NOT Respond to Medications

Specifically, patients who are suffering with throat symptoms of reflux will often not respond to proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) medications. Such throat symptoms include throat-clearing, phlegmy throat, cough, hoarseness, and globus. Known as LPR (laryngopharyngeal reflux), a study was done measuring the pH at the throat level after 4+ weeks of twice daily PPI.This retrospective study found that although 67.4% had symptom normalization, 32.6%...

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Device that Allows Intubated Patients to Talk

Image by Calleamanecer in WikipediaThere is nothing worse than to be very sick. It's even worse if you are intubated in the ICU (intensive care unit) being poked and prodded constantly. Traditionally, such sick intubated patients (if alert) will communicate by writing on a clipboard which is often frustrating to not just the patient, but also family members and healthcare professionals trying to care for the patient.However, NEJM reported on the...

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How Ears Tune In and Out Certain Sounds

Ever wonder how humans with normal hearing are able to "hear" what one person is saying in a crowded room where many people are talking? How is it that the ear is able to tune in and out of conversations going around, especially when everybody in a room is talking equally loud?To understand this ear "tuning" ability, one needs to first understand that the ear incorporates two "aspects" that allow for good hearing: a volume knob and an antenna. Should...

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LeBron James and His Broken Nose

LeBron James suffered a broken nose. He first broke it Feb 2014 when playing against Oklahoma City. He than got hit to the nose again (while wearing a mask) when playing against Houston in March 2014. [link]Regardless of whether you are an NBA player or not, treatment of most nasal and even facial fractures do NOT require surgical repair.The key elements that lead towards a decision for facial and/or nasal fracture surgery are...

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Permanent Hearing Loss From Noise May Depend on Time of Day!

Research out of Sweden have discovered that noise-induced hearing loss sustained at night is more likely to become permanent than if it occurred during the day... at least in mice.Apparently, there are certain genes found to cycle in the cochlea of mice in a pattern that followed the hours of the day. By measuring the auditory nerve activity, they found that mice exposed to moderate noise levels during the night suffered from permanent hearing loss...

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Infant Sound Machines for Sleep May Cause Hearing Loss

As a father of two young kids who still use a sound machine to help them sleep, I was quite curious about a recent paper that warned that such devices may cause permanent hearing loss. Researchers compared a total of 65 sounds produced by 14 machines and measured the maximum sound level at a distance of 30 cm (crib-rail placement), 100 cm (beside crib placement), and 200 cm (across room placement).Why is placement important?When it comes to risk...

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Flushing Ears with Cold Water Can Treat Somatoparaphrenia

Somatoparaphrenia is a condition whereby a person denies that a limb or an entire side of the body belongs to them, even if provided with irrefutable proof. This condition usually is accompanied by left-sided paralysis and anosognosia (denial or lack of awareness) of the paralysis often due to a parietal stroke.What is interesting is that flushing the left ear with cold water (caloric vestibular stimulation) can temporarily treat/resolve somatoparaphrenia....

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