The Tree of Life: neurosurgeons

Showing posts with label neurosurgeons. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Stunningly bad news-like report on UC Davis neurosurgeons - bacteria in brain story

Well, if you are not keeping up the saga of the UC Davis neurosurgeons who injected bacteria into patients brains continues.

This week it was reported that the surgeons have (finally) stepped down from UC Davis Medical School: See the SacBee story for more detail.

Also I have been compiling information on the case here: #UCDavis neurosurgeons conducted experimental surgery w/o IRB approval.

And personally I am glad to see them go. That being said, it would be nice if news stories about the case were not too outrageous. This one from "NerdAlert" is particularly bad:

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Some fun holiday reading about the UC Davis Medical Center neurosurgeon saga

Well, here are some new news stories to read:

For some background see my detailed post with much of the history in the story here.

I must say, it certainly seems time to replace the administration at the UC Davis Medical Center. The Dean is stepping down, but not for some months (see Amid controversy, Claire Pomeroy to step down as UC Davis med). The main administrator Ann Madden Rice is still there. I wouldn't expect her to stay for long.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

#UCDavis neurosurgeons conducted experimental surgery w/o IRB approval

Not really sure what to say about this other than that this story should be read by many/all who are interested in medical research and/or UC Davis: 2 UC Davis neurosurgeons accused of experimental surgery are banned from human research - Investigations - The Sacramento Bee.

UPDATE 7/23. Added a summary: Two UC Davis neurosurgeons were treating terminally ill brain cancer patients with an unapproved, experimental treatment that is referred to as "Probiotic Intracranial Therapy for Malignant Glioma". The treatment involved purposefully infecting patients brains with a bacterium Enterobacter aerogenes apparently because of prior anecdotes and case reports that suggested that patients with these brain cancers who also had brain infections might live longer than those with the cancer but without the infection. According to the article, there was an investigation at UC Davis into the practices of the surgeons. It was determined by UC Davis that they did not have IRB approval to carry out the treatments and that there were some other issues with the practice going on. At the conclusion of the investigation UC Davis wrote a letter to the FDA detailing the case and has banned the two neurosurgeons from performing medical research on humans. Read the article for much more detail and see the link below.

Many interconnected issues in here involving IRB approval, human experimental treatments and informed consent, UC Davis, and even "probiotics". Still taking it all in ... Uggh ...

Other stories posted in the SacBee at the same time: