Your Health

By Janice M. Horowitz

GOOD NEWS

AIR ON THE SAFE SIDE Surgery may have just got safer. Doctors have discovered that simply adding more oxygen to the mix of gases patients breathe while they're under the knife can cut in half the incidence of wound infection--a serious complication that can prolong hospital stays and even result in death. Among other things, the added oxygen helps white blood cells fight off bacteria. The news comes just three months after the same researchers found that upping oxygen also halves the rate of postoperative vomiting and nausea. The cost of oxygen? Less than 3[cents] a patient.

SEIZE THIS Another option for epileptics: the FDA has cleared Trileptal, a new drug for kids and adults who suffer from so-called partial seizures, the most common type of epilepsy. Until now, many patients had to take two or three types of medication--up to 10 pills a day--to keep seizures at bay. Trileptal can be taken in combination with other drugs or alone. And it seems to work where others fail. In one study, 25% of patients who were headed for surgery remained seizure free during 10 days on Trileptal. Side effects of Trileptal, such as fatigue, headache and nausea, seem to hit fewer patients than side effects of other current drugs do.

BAD NEWS

E-GAD! Vitamin E may not help the heart after all. In a double-blind trial of nearly 10,000 high-risk patients--who had already had a heart attack or stroke--400 IUs of vitamin E daily didn't work any better than a sugar pill in preventing a subsequent episode of heart trouble. Best advice: for now, count on aspirin and the other meds your doctor prescribes.

STOP! You would think with all that's been learned about the dangers of smoking while pregnant--high rates of miscarriage, babies with impaired mental development and low birth weight--that mothers-to-be would just snuff it out already. Not so. A new report shows that the percentage of pregnant women who quit smoking--about 50%--has remained unchanged over the past decade. --By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources: Good News--New England Journal of Medicine (1/20/00); Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Bad News--New England Journal of Medicine (1/20/00); Journal of the American Medical Association (1/19/00)