The medical kit that can be found in your child’s pencil case
From paper clips for blood pressure to Blu-Tack for ear problems . . .
THIS week children will return to school with their pencil cases brimming with new stationery. But medicine, too, relies on stationery in ways you might not expect, treating everything from high blood pressure to piles, as HELEN FOSTER reveals . . . GLUE TO RAISE CHANCE OF CONCEPTION
TRADITIONALLY, glue’s role in medicine was to seal surface wounds after surgery or injury, but now glues are being used to make things stick where they might not otherwise.
Take the varicose vein treatment Venaseal. This is used to stick together the veins that feed those unsightly blue bulgy ones that can develop on calves.
if you seal the feeder veins, varicose veins disappear.
Vascular surgeon Mark Whiteley from the Whiteley Clinic in london says: ‘The glue also tricks the feeder vein. it thinks it’s being attacked by a foreign body and actually destroys itself. This makes the procedure superior to stripping the veins out surgically, as they won’t come back — when you remove a vein, they can.’
a study published in May in the journal Vascular found all but one of 70 veins were fully closed within a month of treatment. But Venaseal is expensive, costing around £3,500 per treatment.
another sticky innovation is EmbryoGlue. This is used to coat a fertilised embryo to increase the chance of it sticking to the lining of the womb, which is key to a successful pregnancy.
Karen Schnauffer, an embryologist at The Hewitt Fertility Centre in Knutsford, Cheshire, says: ‘We now use this in every patient we treat.’
an analysis of trials by the respected Cochrane review involving more than 3,200 patients found that using the glue increased the chance of successful pregnancy from 41 to 50 per cent.
STICKY TAPE TO STOP BLISTERS
MEDICAL kinesiology tape has long been used to reduce pain or risk of injury during exercise. now it’s being used to reduce a side- effect of cancer surgery called lymphoedema.
‘lymphoedema is the build-up of lymph fluid in an area,’ explains Jane Wigg, a specialist nurse from the lymphoedema Training academy.
‘it occurs when the normal system that carries fluid out of the body, the lymphatic system, becomes impaired and it can often happen after cancer surgery when the lymph nodes are removed or the vessels leading to them are cut.’
The tape is applied to stretch and lift the tissue to encourage the fluid to flow towards a duct from which it can drain away. a 2014 study at the University of rzeszow in Poland showed it reduced the volume of fluid by 55 per cent in patients following mastectomy. The tape is best applied by a professional.
one tape-based health treatment you can do at home is using surgical sticky tape to prevent blisters.
a new study from Stanford University in the U.S. found that only 30 runners (of 128) got blisters in taped areas compared with 81 of those not taped. Surgical tape is adhesive but easy to remove, so it won’t damage blisters if they do form. you can buy it from chemists — simply place a strip over vulnerable areas before you run to protect against rubbing and friction.
CLIPS TO REDUCE BLOOD PRESSURE
THE Coupler, a device that looks like a twisted paperclip, is being trialled to help those with high blood pressure. it is inserted in the upper thigh between the main artery and the vein in an operation that takes about an hour.
The device creates a passageway that allows blood to leak from the artery into the vein, which lowers blood pressure. in a study published in The lancet in 2015, average systolic blood pressure (the top number in the reading) fell by 13.5mmHg in six months in those fitted with the device compared with 0.5mmHg in a control group.
‘it is an option to those who are resistant to lifestyle changes or drug treatment,’ says dr Melvin lobo, a clinical hypertension specialist from Queen Mary University of london, who led the study. The Coupler is currently only available to those taking part in a clinical trial.
PENS THAT TAKE THE PLACE OF JABS
SINCE the EpiPen first came along in the Eighties — to deliver the ormone adrenaline quickly to those in anaphylactic shock, a severe form of allergic reaction — medical pens have come a long way.
now a pen is used by patients with diabetes to deliver insulin. The drug is loaded inside the barrel, the tip is placed on the skin and the top is clicked to release the needle, just like pressing down on a biro.
‘Pen devices can really benefit those who may not feel comfortable injecting required medication in public places, and often remove the fear associated with having an injection,’ says pharmacist alison McCreedy from lloyds Pharmacy.
Companies are now producing smart-pens that sync with smartphones to show how much insulin was given and when. one of the first examples, the VigiPen 2, should be launched here early next year.
BLU-TACK FOR HEARING WORRIES
PUTTING Blu-Tack in your ears is never something you should do yourself — but in the hands of Manohar Bance, a professor of otolaryngology at dalhousie University in Canada, it’s a radical new way to tackle a common ear problem.
He has used it successfully in experiments on people with a hearing condition called patulous eustachian tube, thought to affect more than a million Britons.
it means the tube that normally controls pressure within the ear stays open — rather than opening and closing when needed — which causes excessive vibration of the eardrum that amplifies sound. ‘it’s a condition that makes people very miserable, says Professor Bance.
‘Patients hear their own voice echoing in their ear all the time. They also hear their breathing, so it’s like having darth Vader in their ears.’
in a 2009 trial, he simply put a ball of Blu-Tack against the eardrum. He left it there for a minute to see if it stopped the vibration — it did, without significantly affecting hearing.
Since then he’s been trying other methods to replicate the Blu-Tack effect in a more medical way. Currently, he’s using cartilage from a part of the ear called the tragus. in early trials, 70 per cent of patients found their symptoms reduced.
STAPLES TO HELP WITH PILES
STAPLES are used to seal surgical incisions. Titanium or steel are used, as these are less likely to trigger allergic reactions than the zinc staples in your office drawer.
one of the main operations involving staples is in haemorrhoidectomy to treats piles. Piles are swollen areas of tissue around the anus, that can be painful or itchy. Traditionally, treatment involved another stationery- inspired solution: applying surgical rubber bands which cut off their blood supply, causing the pile to shrink.
in stapled haemorrhoidectomy, a stapling device is used instead. a small area of the bowel lining around the pile is pulled into the device, cutting then sealing it, which removes the blood supply. it’s more painful than banding, but the piles are less likely to return. This is now commonly available on the NHS.
RULERS TO TEST FOR DEMENTIA
a RULER plays a role in a recent alzheimer’s breakthrough. Parts of the brain that control sense of smell are among the first to be affected in alzheimer’s and the left part of the brain tends to deteriorate first. What neuroscientists at the University of Florida found is that you can test this easily using a ruler and a strong-smelling item.
They asked patients to close their eyes and block one nostril. They then held a tablespoon of peanut butter 30cm away from the clear nostril — with a ruler held between the two.
They then moved the jar towards the nose and discovered in those with alzheimer’s that the right nostril detected the odour around 10cm closer than the left — those with other forms of cognitive decline, such as dementia, didn’t show this difference. They think a more sophisticated form of the test could one day diagnose alzheimer’s.
Meanwhile, there is a prototype of a device called Wanda, literally two antenna stuck to a 12in wooden ruler. Created at dartmouth College in the U.S., it wirelessly collects data from devices such as home blood pressure monitors and sends them securely to a recording device. The idea is that you point Wanda at the monitor, then at the recorder, and data will transmit between the two.
TREASURY TAGS FOR PROSTATE TROUBLE
a TREASURY tag, used to hold files together, is a similar design to a device used in a procedure called Urolift. This is used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), where the prostate enlarges, making it harder to fully empty the bladder.
‘Think of the enlargement as creating curtains that close over the urethra (the tube carrying urine out of the body), blocking it,’ says Marc laniado, a consultant urologist at NHS Wexham Park Hospital and Harley Street’s nuada Urology.
‘With Urolift, we attach a metal tag to each “curtain” and use the wire between to pull the curtains apart, unblocking the urethra.’
Unlike some treatments for BPH, it doesn’t risk problems with ejaculation or erectile dysfunction.