FRIDAY, June 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A new liver dialysis device might soon be able to save patients on the edge of death from liver failure, early clinical trial results show.The DIALIVE device safely improved organ function and alleviated symptoms in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure, compared with others receiving standard care, the researchers reported.If the device proves out in a larger trial, it could provide patients with liver failure a lifeline at a time of immediate danger, said senior researcher Dr. Rajiv Jalan, a professor of hepatology at University College London (UCL), in the United Kingdom.“Liver failure is potentially reversible as the liver has enormous capacity for regeneration,” Jalan said. “Therefore, the aim of a liver dialysis machine is to...

FRIDAY, June 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- It may not be necessary for people who have prolapse surgery for pelvic floor disorders to wait to get started exercising again.A new study challenges standard restrictions, finding that those who resume exercising soon after the procedure do just as well as those who wait several weeks.“This study is a paradigm shift for urogynecologists — it is practice changing,” said senior study author Dr. Matthew Barber, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C. “For decades, surgeons have been instructing patients to avoid activity after reconstructive surgery, and we now know that is unnecessary,” Barber said in a Duke news release.“The findings of this study are consistent with trials in other...

FRIDAY, June 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Genetic mutations caused this latest bird flu season to become more severe, increasing the risk it poses to humans and other mammals, a new study finds.The H5N1 avian influenza virus gained the ability to severely infect the brains of mammalian test subjects like ferrets, researchers with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found.That’s a notable departure from previous strains of the virus, the researchers said.“We haven’t seen a virus quite like this one,” said lead researcher Richard Webby, with the St. Jude department of infectious diseases, in Memphis, Tenn. “In 24 years of tracing this particular H5N1 flu lineage, we haven’t seen this ability to cause disease but also be maintained in these wild bird populations.”The H5N1...

FRIDAY, June 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- People unvaccinated for COVID-19 have significant odds of lingering illness if they get the virus, with one in six still suffering symptoms two years later, new research shows.A study from Switzerland found that 17% of that group did not return to their previously normal health, and 18% reported COVID symptoms such as shortness of breath 24 months after their infection was gone.“Persisting health issues create significant challenges for affected individuals and pose an important burden on population health and health care services,” lead researcher Tala Ballouz and colleagues wrote in the May 31 issue of the BMJ. Ballouz, from the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute at the University of Zurich, and her team called for...