Organ donation, transplant at U-M keeps NHL referee’s son on the ice

Ann Arbor, Mich. —At 3-years-old, Devin O’Halloran was up on skates, learning to glide across the ice just like his dad, who is a National Hockey League referee. But even then, his parents knew their little boy faced much bigger challenges than learning to maneuver around a rink.
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University of Michigan Vascular Surgeons help issue “call to action”

Peter K. Henke, M.D., Doan Professor of Vascular Surgery, recently led the proceedings of the Pacific Vascular Symposium 6, which issued a call to action to the international vascular surgery community toward battling venous ulcers.
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Assessment tool predicts blood clot risk after plastic surgery

Patients undergoing plastic or reconstructive surgery should receive a risk assessment before their procedure to predict whether they’ll develop potentially fatal blood clots in the legs or lungs, according to research at the University of Michigan Medical School. Researchers also found that 1 in 9 patients at highest risk based on that assessment will develop clots if not given clot-preventing medications after surgery.
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A prosthetic hand better than Luke Skywalker’s? Researcher says it’s possible

A University of Michigan researcher says he’s developing something even better for amputees who’ve lost the all-important important human extremity.

In the future, users of a real-life bionic hand could be able to control it in much the same way they would control a human hand. But unlike Luke’s, it will also be able to feel, said Paul Cederna, plastic surgery professor and associate surgery chief at the University of Michigan Health System.
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Checklists cut surgery deaths in half, study shows

Using an exhaustive hospital checklist prevents errors and cuts the risk of death nearly in half for patients who come in for surgery, researchers reported on Wednesday.

“Checklists could avert tens of thousands of surgical deaths and hundreds of thousands of serious complications every year in the United States,” Dr. John D. Birkmeyer of the University of Michigan wrote in a commentary.
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U-M surgeon selected to advisory committee on breast cancer in young women

University of Michigan surgical oncologist Lisa Newman, M.D., M.P.H., was one of 15 people invited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to serve on the Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer in Young Women, a federal advisory committee established by the Affordable Care Act. Read article.