Actually, steering wheels rarely kill you by hitting your head. What normally happens is that your chest strikes the wheel and experiences a deceleration injury. The way the heart is attached in the chest causes it to fold forward on the attachment where the subclavian artery meets the aorta. This causes a partial or complete tear of the aorta (aortic dissection/transection) If a partial tear is detected in the ER before it ruptures, the patient can occasionally be saved with emergency surgery. My general surgery chairman suggested that all auto manufacturers should mark steering wheels with a raised 'AORTAGRAM' mirror image on them. That way when the chest struck the wheel with sufficient force, it would remind the surgery residents to get an aortagram to rule out dissection by printing it right on the chest.

I haven't done a CT case for 10 years but who knows. I have done a cholecystectomy under epidural before, I would not imagine this technique is less expensive but maybe. I saw video in residency of a Chinese woman having a massive tumor removed from her chest under acupuncture and hypnosis. I guess anything is possible.

I cannot imagine anything more dangerous than a 'neck down' regional anesthetic. Now, IAAA (I am an anesthesiologist) and from my experience, the risk of a general anesthetic for open heart surgery would be far less than the risk of this. In order to be high enough, the block would have to deprive the patient of one remarkably important activity involved in being awake, the ability to breathe. Additionally, if a selective block could be done that would permit enough muscle strength to breathe, there are serious problems in trying to breathe with an open chest. Without a sealed cavity, the lungs simply collapse. If the surgeon could stay extra-pleural, and you had a remarkably healthy and motivated patient it possibly could be done, I just cannot imagine why. Maybe this was all explained in TFA, but this is slashdot after all........

Car Deal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNmi-bBhWG8

Here are some more real numbers "The Carboniferous Period and the Ordovician Period were the only geological periods during the Paleozoic Era when global temperatures were as low as they are today. To the consternation of global warming proponents, the Late Ordovician Period was also an Ice Age while at the same time CO2 concentrations then were nearly 12 times higher than today-- 4400 ppm. According to greenhouse theory, Earth should have been exceedingly hot. Instead, global temperatures were no warmer than today. Clearly, other factors besides atmospheric carbon influence earth temperatures and global warming."

It's strange, but I was recently looking at some ice core CO2 data and noticed that CO2 levels have been so much higher in the past during periods when global temperature was lower than it is now.

"The Carboniferous Period and the Ordovician Period were the only geological periods during the Paleozoic Era when global temperatures were as low as they are today. To the consternation of global warming proponents, the Late Ordovician Period was also an Ice Age while at the same time CO2 concentrations then were nearly 12 times higher than today-- 4400 ppm. According to greenhouse theory, Earth should have been exceedingly hot. Instead, global temperatures were no warmer than today. Clearly, other factors besides atmospheric carbon influence earth temperatures and global warming."

I agree with getting off the oil habit, but those worshiping in the church of global warming are going about it all wrong. President hopeychange is planning to "spread the warmth" around to the less fortunate planets in our solar system. A new 167% income tax on those filthy rich making over $13,000 per year will be used to load our excess heat into large gas-bags shaped like Rush Limbaugh and delivered to our unfortunate neighbors that are only cold because of our oppression.



--I have no sig

The parent is spot on. If individuals were personally responsible for their own health care costs, they would be much more cautious consumers and providers would be focused on the patient, rather than serving the insurance company's needs. Opening up the market would drive costs down (and raise quality)as Doctors and Hospitals had to compete for patients. It is also important to realize that medicine is the most regulated business in the US. Federal regulations make it more difficult to be innovative and the retarded rules about health care make it more expensive. My recommendation, everyone in the US gets a medical savings account and a high deductible ($5-$10K per year) policy for major medical issues. The patient pays out of pocket for everything under $5,000 and the insurance covers the rest. There is strong incentive to only go to the ER when necessary, and people would become much better at getting cost effective care. Some employers around here have tried this and it seems to work as expected. tugboat, MD I was going to say just my $.02 worth, but with Mr. Obama's plan to squeeze payments to Dr.s and Hospitals, it's probably more like $.008

What about thickness? From my reading, although the surface area may have declined, the thickness of the ice cap is increasing resulting in no change, or perhaps an increase in the total VOLUME of ice. It seems to me that SA measurement is fairly irrelevant without thickness data. I'm just sayin' ....

As a medical professional in the midwest I have had my personal information stolen 3 times in the last 12 months. In order to sign up with insurance companies, medicare, medicaid and etc., I have to provide name, office address, home address, SSN, personal and professional history and in some cases even a photo. They provide a really, really nice privacy policy that says they won't share any of this information, but they accept no responsibility for its loss. Today, I have three really great credit monitoring services (for one year mind you) and that is the extent of the liability I can extract from an insurance company, or even the federal government, for the loss of my information. It seems really retarded to me, but who am I to complain? (hears jack-boots in hallway---)