News

Q. What is Sepilift? Does it induce a skin tightening reaction as advertised?

National report ? Facelifts may give a person a renewed youthful appearance, but they can also have an unpleasant side effect ? the development of noticeable, large, blue veins. Temple veins, especially, tend to become more prominent after facelift procedures.

The key to effective, natural-looking hair transplantation is to study the natural patterns of the hair.

While the biggest successes in terms of research and efficacy have been seen with vitamin A, other vitamins also offer varying degrees of benefits, but documentation of such benefits in topical uses still leaves much to be desired.

In addition to efforts on the collagen front is another movement to develop peptides to mimic the activities of botulinium toxin in the neuro-muscular junction.

Scotts dale, Ariz. ? Fillers and botulinum toxin have become mainstays in cosmetic treatments in any state-of-the-art practice worldwide. Just how and when to employ these seemingly simple yet sometimes tricky-to-administer corrective injections can more often than not prove to be a challenging task for the inexperienced physician.

Study results demonstrated that the minimum concentration to inhibit the growth of 90 percent of bacteria tested (MIC 90) was lowest for retapamulin out of a total of 15 tested topical antibiotics.

Retired dermatologist and researcher Henry Earl Jones, M.D., has aninquisitive nature that led to a better understanding of theimmunology of fungal infection and an arsenal of badly needed drugsfor difficult-to-treat patients. His curiosity expands beyond themedical, however, and his questioning about why Californians werenot able to successfully grow Spanish grapes for wine led to hissecond career (after 35 years as a dermatologist), as owner of athriving U.S. winery.

Cleveland ? "What if there were no topical corticosteroids? Or if a patient were unable to use them?"

National report ? Modern goals for wart therapy are based on both lesion clearance and recurrence prevention, and achieving those objectives, especially in tough cases, usually requires a combination approach incorporating an agent that will provide antiviral and immunomodulatory activity, says Stephen K. Tyring, M.D., Ph.D.

According to Dr. Trowers, there is an increased efficacy of hydroquinone in higher concentrations in skin of color, especially when it is combined with chemical peels and/or tretinoin.

Treatment (e.g., with methotrexate) of systemic inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis reduced the incidence of vascular diseases, presumably through its anti-inflammatory effect.

Miami ? Hemangiomas and vascular malformations are relatively common in children and sometimes prove difficult to manage.

San Francisco ? Dermatologists are seeing more community-acquired strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to John H. Epstein, M.D.

Geneva ? Interest in rapid diagnostics for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is driven by the troubling increase in incidence and a growing understanding that hospital-acquired and community-acquired strains can have different patterns of resistance and susceptibility to drugs.

Atlanta -- "Community-acquired MRSA is just exploding among the urban patient population we serve," says Henry Michael Blumberg, M.D., an epidemiologist and director of the division of infectious disease at Emory University School of Medicine.

National report ? For two Mohs surgeons formerly based in New Orleans, the decision to relocate after Hurricane Katrina rested upon factors such as work opportunities and long-term safety.

San Francisco ? The willingness of dermatologists to take a more active role in positions of influence and decision will ultimately determine whether the specialty and its reputation are safeguarded for the future, according to Clay J. Cockerell, M.D., speaking at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) in March.

With increasing reports of dermatology patients waiting for three months or longer, some dermatologists feel that industry funding could at least make a dent in the shortage of skin specialists.

MedPAC also warned that continued increases in healthcare costs, the retirement of the baby boomers and Medicare's new prescription drug benefit will cause Medicare spending to skyrocket.

After more than a year of almost nonstop claptrap about there being "too many" new drugs comes a sobering fact ? even as pharmaceutical companies poured a record amount of money into drug development in 2005, statistics from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) show that the agency approved only 20 new drugs, down from 36 in 2004. Only once in the last 10 years has the number of newly approved drugs been lower than last year's figure.

New Orleans ? When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city on Aug. 29, the category four storm devastated many local dermatologists' practices, perhaps none more so than that of Lisa Osberg-Wilson, M.D. Wracked by financial uncertainty in the storm's wake, the 45-year-old mother of three took her life on Friday, Nov. 4, according to the Times-Picayune.

National report ? While topical calcineurin inhibitors for treating atopic dermatitis (AD) continue to grab headlines, sources tell Dermatology Times that research into additional treatments for pediatric skin problems is progressing.

West Conshohocken, Pa. -- Dermisonics Inc., a developer of ultrasonic transdermal drug delivery technologies, announced that it has completed the first working model of its A-Wand antiseptic delivery system and is in talks with the Army Institute of Surgical Research under the Combat Casualty Care Research Program to develop a battlefield version.

Utrecht, Netherlands -- According to a recent Dutch study, one epidural injection of steroids and local anesthetics may not ease long-term pain for shingles patients.

Great Neck, N.Y. -- More than 90 percent of U.S. adults who have or have had a scar say they were unaware that using an over-the-counter product to help heal their scar might actually make it worse.

Rochester, N.Y. -- Results of a recently released Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll suggest that an increasing percentage of Americans are undergoing invasive cosmetic treatments that sometimes are not covered by medical insurance.

Boston; Dermatology practices are adding staff members and increasing their efficiency and productivity to deal with frustrating wait times, according to Alexa Boer Kimball, M.D., director of the Clinical Unit, Research Trials in Skin, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham Womens Hospital. Dr. Boer Kimball is also chair of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Workforce Task Force.

It looked at statin use and cancer incidence in general, and found the drugs failed to statistically improve cancer rates across the board.

Dermatologists will inevitably increase compliance among ethnic patients when treating scalp conditions such as seborrheic dermatitis or atopic dermatitis if they inquire about the types of hair products the patient normally uses.