U.S. operating rooms got busy once again soon after the first round of pandemic shutdowns, according to a study that challenges the widely held belief that operations have been curtailed indefinitely during the age of COVID-19.

"It's an untold story," said senior study author Dr. Sherry Wren, a professor of general surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, in California. "It's t...

The coronavirus appears to target both fat cells and certain immune cells within body fat, which may explain why overweight and obese people are more likely to develop severe COVID-19, researchers report.

When the virus gets into those cells, it triggers a damaging inflammatory response that "could well be contributing to severe disease,"study co-senior author Dr. Catherine Blish, a profe...

Booster doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine set recipients up to effectively withstand the ravages of both the Delta and Omicron variants, a group of new studies suggest.

Boosted folks are 90% less likely to die from a Delta infection than people relying solely on the initial two-dose vaccination, Israeli data show.

That protection will be critically important during the next coup...

People who recovered from a severe case of COVID-19 may have more to worry about: New research finds that patients hospitalized with COVID are 2.5 times more likely to die within the year than people who never contracted the coronavirus.

They also are nearly twice as likely to die as people who had a mild case of COVID, researchers say.

The risk of death is even higher for hosp...

Asthma is a tough disease for kids and their parents to manage well, but not keeping it under control may make these children up to six times more likely to wind up in the hospital with severe COVID-19, new research shows.

With the cold and flu season about to kick in and COVID-19 rates climbing again in some areas, kids with asthma should make sure their disease is under tight control, s...

Extreme heat brings a jump in emergency room visits by adults of all ages, a new study shows.

While it's well known that extreme heat puts adults aged 65 and older at increased risk of hospitalization and death, it's been less clear how it affects young and middle-aged adults.

To find out, the researchers analyzed the associations between heat and ER visits among more than 74 millio...

One in five adults avoided seeking health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, even when they had symptoms suggesting the need for urgent medical attention, according to researchers in the Netherlands.

"Health care avoidance during COVID-19 may be prevalent amongst those who are in greater need of it in the population, such as older individuals," a team led by Silvan Licher, of Erasmus Univ...

If you live the country life, new research brings a reassuring finding: Your chances of surviving a heart attack, stroke or other potentially life-threatening medical emergency at a rural emergency department are similar to odds at a city ER in the United States.

Researchers analyzed more than 470,000 outcomes among Medicare beneficiaries treated at rural and urban ERs between 2011 and 20...

Race-based gaps in health care and health outcomes persist in every region of the United States, a new state-by-state report card shows.

Racial and ethnic disparities woven throughout America and its system of health care mean that people of color are more likely to die younger from preventable illnesses than white people, according to a racial equity scorecard developed by The Commonweal...

Nearly a third of health care staff in U.S. hospitals were not vaccinated against COVID-19 as of mid-September, a new study shows.

Researchers analyzed data on more than 3.3 million health care workers at more than 2,000 hospitals nationwide between Jan. 20 and Sept. 15.

"Our analysis revealed that vaccine coverage among U.S. hospital-based [health care personnel] stalled significan...

CT scans expose patients to radiation even as they help doctors spot serious health problems. Now a new study finds low-dose scans can readily spot appendicitis while reducing patients' radiation exposure.

"The results of this study suggest that the diagnostic CT scan radiation dose can be significantly decreased without impairing diagnostic accuracy," said lead study author Paulina Salmi...

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered some lessons on respiratory disease transmission, and now a new review suggests that hospitals could use those insights to create even smarter infection-control policies.

The review, published Nov. 9 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, suggests that some longstanding infection-control tactics at hospitals are "outdated."

And certain changes, like gr...

The risk of serious illness or death is lower among vaccinated people who get breakthrough COVID-19 infections than among unvaccinated people who get infected, two new studies confirm.

An ongoing study of 780,000 U.S. veterans found that all three vaccines available in the United States provide strong protection against severe disease and death, despite a significant decline in their effe...

The word went out late last month throughout Utah -- if you've got a spare set of aluminum crutches lying around, you should donate them to your local hospital.

An international shortage of aluminum has caused delays in shipments of crutches and walkers, so Utah hospitals banded together for #LeanOnUtah -- a community drive to collect gently used durable medical supplies.

No patient...

Emergency room nurse Grace Politis was catching up on paperwork during her shift when she suddenly realized her head hurt badly. Then she blacked out.

"Later on, I found out I was hit in the head twice with a fire extinguisher by a patient," said Politis, who works at Lowell General Hospital in Lowell, Mass.

A disturbed man awaiting psychiatric evaluation had fractured Politis' skul...

Coronavirus cases have plunged by 60% since mid-September's Delta-driven peak, U.S. health officials said earlier this week. But with winter on the way, they warned that Americans still need to protect themselves and others against COVID-19.

"We are now heading in the right direction ... but with cases still high, we must remain vigilant heading into the colder, drier winter months," Dr. ...

It helps to speak English if you're a home care patient in the United States.

A new study of home health care found that patients who speak a language other than English have higher rates of hospital readmission.

Readmission rates among New York City patients whose first language wasn't English were highest among Spanish and Russian speakers. They were lower among Chinese and K...

A cheap and widely available antidepressant drug called fluvoxamine may reduce COVID-19 patients' risk of serious illness requiring hospitalization, according to a new study.

The trial included almost 1,500 unvaccinated outpatients in Brazil. All of the patients tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 and were deemed to be at high risk for a severe case of illness.

Fluvoxamine...

Routine face mask ventilation during an operation doesn't increase the surgical team's risk of coronavirus infection, according to a new study.

Face mask ventilation is typically used for surgical patients under general anesthesia. However, its designation as an "aerosol-generating procedure" by the World Health Organization has altered operating room procedures and efficiency during the ...

Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 could now face thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical costs, according to a new report.

In 2020, most health insurance companies waived co-pays, deductibles and other cost-sharing for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but many stopped doing that early this year, the University of Michigan researchers noted.

"Many insurers claim that it is ju...

Dr. Tiffany Braley works with patients who have experienced strokes and other serious health conditions, treating them at the Michigan hospital where she works as they begin their recovery.

Braley noticed there was a trend among patients who resisted being admitted to or staying in the hospital: They just wanted to get home, because they had no one to care for their beloved pets.

"I...

Since the rise of the Delta variant, one Texas hospital has seen a surge in severe COVID-19 among pregnant women -- nearly all unvaccinated.

Researchers at the Dallas hospital found that in late August and early September, 10% to 15% of pregnant patients who tested positive for COVID-19 needed to be hospitalized for severe illness.

That was more than double the percentage of a year ...

Full vaccination with the two-dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has been 90% effective in protecting against hospitalization for at least six months, a new study shows.

That includes the time during which the highly contagious Delta variant has been circulating in the United States.

For the study, researchers analyzed Kaiser Permanente Southern California data on more than 3.4 milli...