June 1, 2003

Although many cases of acute abdominal pain in children are benign, some causes require rapid diagnosis and treatment to minimize morbidity.

Z-plasty is a plastic surgery technique used to improve the functional and cosmetic appearance of scars. Keeping the length and angle of each flap precisely the same is key to obtaining proper closure after transposition.

Increasingly, atypical antipsychotic drugs are prescribed for elderly patients with symptoms of psychosis and behavioral disturbances. These symptoms often occur in patients with Alzheimer's disease, other dementias, or Parkinson's disease. As the average age of Americans…

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring may be particularly helpful in patients with borderline hypertension, white coat hypertension, apparent drug resistance, hypotensive symptoms from medications or autonomic dysfunction, and episodic hypertension.

For over 10 years now, AFP has published health information for you to photocopy and hand out to your patients. Most of these patient information handouts accompany the clinical review articles of AFP and are written by the same authors. Authors are given guidelines to help…

Report Shows Americans Support Limits on Medical Malpractice Awards | AAFP Supports Five Medical Reform Bills Currently in the House, Senate | Family Physicians Should Be Recognized as Mental Health Care Providers | AAFP Recommends UpToDate Web Site, Offers Free Trial to…

The developing brain may be more resilient than previously was thought, shows a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study published in JAMA. Follow-up data were obtained on 296 infants born weighing 600 to 1,250 g (1 lb, 5 oz to 2 lb, 12 oz) and evaluated at 36, 54, 72…

Hypertension and its sequelae are responsible for many visits to family physicians. Office-based measurement of blood pressure using aneroid or mercury sphygmomanometry is central to such visits. In this issue of American Family Physician, Marchiando and Elston1 review a…

This week, JOH, along with two other physicians and a pediatric nurse practitioner, traveled to Palenque, Mexico, to provide medical care to the people of that area. The trip was sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Stella Niagara, who have a convent in Palenque. The first…

There is no evidence that anticoagulation with either heparin or warfarin improves these outcomes. There is clear evidence of increased hemorrhagic complications (both fatal and nonfatal) in patients who receive anticoagulation.

What are the effects of treatments?

Photo Quiz presents readers with a clinical challenge based on a photograph or other image.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released screening recommendations for assessing hearing loss in children of all ages. Failure to detect children with congenital or acquired hearing loss may result in lifelong deficits in speech and language acquisition, poor…

AAP Guidelines on Rickets and Vitamin D Supplementation | AHRQ Report on Neonatal Jaundice | AAP Statement on Radiation Disasters and Children | AHRQ Report on Health Insurance Coverage | FDA Advisory

Family physicians who encounter an unexpected medical emergency face a myriad of ethical, legal, and competency issues.

Blood pressure is the force, or pressure, that pushes blood through the blood vessels in your body. In some people, it takes a lot of force. These people have what is called high blood pressure. Another word for it is hypertension.

Cancer of the lining of the uterus (or womb) is called endometrial cancer. The most common sign of endometrial cancer is unusual bleeding from your vagina, especially bleeding after you have already gone through menopause.

A Pap smear allows your doctor to look at cells from your cervix to see if there are any problems. Your Pap smear has shown one or more of the following changes. Ask your doctor which of these changes you have.

An ovarian cyst (say: sist) is a fluid-filled sac in the ovary. Many cysts are completely normal. These are called functional cysts. They occur as a result of ovulation (the release of an egg from the ovary). Functional cysts normally shrink over time, usually in about one to…