Procedure

Former president Bill Clinton was released Friday morning from a New York hospital, where he stayed overnight after doctors inserted two stents into a clogged coronary artery after he complained of chest pains. The one-hour procedure went smoothly, according to his cardiologist. Clinton, 63, was released from New York Presbyterian Hospital's campus at Columbia University early Friday morning "in excellent health" and will soon return to his work on Haiti's relief and long-term recovery, his office said.

A former head of the state's public defender office has lost a challenge to her 2009 firing, as Maryland's highest court ruled against her Tuesday. Nancy S. Forster was fired in a dispute with the agency's governing board over operation of the office that represents poor people facing criminal charges. The Court of Appeals did not rule on her contention that she was wrongly fired because the changes the board sought were illegal and would harm clients. A seven-judge majority ruled against her for procedural reasons.

Orioles catcher Taylor Teagarden, acquired in the offseason to be a veteran reserve to Matt Wieters, said Tuesday that he's about 85 percent healthy after having two procedures on his right knee. Teagarden had a Baker's cyst - a buildup of joint fluid - behind his right knee removed in November. Doctors had to perform another procedure in the knee to remove blood that was forming in the back of the knee and affecting his range of motion. “That's all behind me now, and now it's just a strengthening phase and getting into baseball shape,” Teagarden said.

A Baltimore County judge denied Mark Midei's appeal for reinstatement of his medical license, ruling that there was "substantial evidence" for the Maryland Board of Physicians to revoke it last year after finding that the Towson cardiologist falsified patient records to justify the placement of unnecessary coronary stents. The decision ends an ordeal that began more than three years ago, when an anonymous letter was sent to the state board, claiming Midei, a well-regarded physician who earned a seven-figure salary at St. Joseph Medical Center, was improperly treating patients.

Harbor Hospital Center recently began performing an innovative gall bladder procedure, called the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a procedure previously available only at large research institutions.The operation includes the use of video monitors and specialized surgical instruments to dissect and extract the gall bladder through a tiny incision in the patient's navel.In the recent past, most patients who had gall bladder surgery required a long and painful recovery process, since surgeons had to cut through stomach muscles to reach the gall bladder.

An evaluation of more than 6,000 children scheduled to have tubes placed in their ears to combat recurrent ear infections indicates that the procedure is inappropriate in about one-quarter of cases and of questionable benefit in another third.The children in the study ranged in age from 22 days to 16 years.The finding suggests that each year hundreds of thousands of children who undergo the tube procedure are unlikely to benefit from it and some may even be harmed.

Patricia Kowalczyk had been suffering with neck and shoulder pain for years when her doctor offered her a shot of Botox. The 60-year-old wasn't interested in smoothing her frown lines. But Johns Hopkins' Dr. Paul Christo wasn't offering the popular cosmetic procedure most often associated with the botulinum toxin that paralyzes nerves and muscles. He wanted to give her one small, carefully aimed dose to knock out the ache that made daily activity a chore. "Most of the public doesn't realize Botox is used for medical purposes," said Christo, an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine in Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's division of pain medicine.

Reader Kayris wrote: "I found out today that my 2-year-old will most likely need eye surgery and an MRI before that. Any suggestions for making it easier for a child so young, and any suggestions to get ME through having to see my child under general anesthesia?" I sent her question to Dr. Michael Crocetti, director of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He wrote back some thoughts: "Having surgery or a medical procedure that requires sedation can be scary and very anxiety-provoking for the child and parents," he wrote.

WASHINGTON -- For the second time in two years, the Senate has failed to override President Clinton's veto of a ban on a late-term abortion procedure that opponents call "partial birth."The vote yesterday was 64-36, three shy of the two-thirds needed to override. Maryland's Democratic senators, Barbara A. Mikulski and Paul S. Sarbanes, voted against an override.While the debate, the graphic charts, the anecdotal stories and the vote itself were familiar, the stark mathematics of the November elections loomed large over the Senate.

A standard procedure used more than a million times a year on seriously ill patients in this country offers no benefit and may kill some people, according to a new study that is causing consternation among many doctors.For 25 years, doctors working in the high-technology world of intensive care units have relied on the procedure to diagnose, monitor and treat very sick patients, like those experiencing heart, lung or multi-organ failure.The procedure involves inserting a thin tube into the heart through a neck vein to collect data to guide minute-to-minute therapeutic decisions.

Injured Orioles left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada is still holding out hope for better news, but one of the team's biggest offseason investments might need Tommy John surgery to repair his left elbow, he said before Thursday's game. Wada has already seen Orioles team orthopedist Dr. John Wilckens but is planning to fly to Los Angeles this weekend to see Dr. Lewis Yocum for a second opinion on his elbow. "[My] elbow is feeling better compared to last time I pitched, but the results of the MRI was not so good as I thought it would be," Wada said through interpreter Seob Yoon . "So I'm going to get a second opinion, see [what]

For the first time since 1977, the Pulitzer Prize Board has not chosen a winner in the fiction category. Susan Larson, one of three fiction jurors who each read 300 submissions prior to forwarding three finalists, announced that the jurors were "shocked," "angry," and "very disappointed. " She added that the jurors felt so strongly about all three finalists — "Swamplandia!" by Karen Russell, "The Pale King" by David Foster Wallace, and "Train Dreams" by Dennis Johnson — that they would have been happy had any been selected.

Apparently Americans aren't happy with their chins. Chinplants are the fastest growing plastic surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. And both men and women are getting the procedure. The chin and jawline are among the first parts of the face to show signs of aging and chin implants can make people look more youthful, the group said. The procedure saw a 71 percent increase from 2010 to 2011, when 20,680 people got chin augmentation. Women had led the trend with 10,087 of the surgeries, but men weren't far behind with 10,593 procedures.

Sometimes men are the ones to take care of birth control through a surgical procedure. But when those men and their partners have a change of heart about children for any number of reasons, they seek to reverse their vasectomies. And that's usually possible, even long after the original procedure, says Dr. Brad Lerner, co-director of the Vasectomy Reversal Center of America a division of Chesapeake Urology. Lerner answers questions about getting and reversing a vasectomy. How common are vasectomies?

Maryland horse racing got exposed for a lack of oversight Tuesday during an appeal to have the Rick Dutrow-trained King and Crusader reinstated as the winner of the $75,000 Maryland Juvenile Championship at Laurel Park. Dutrow and his horse's owner James Riccio lost the appeal, but Maryland horse racing may have lost more, as officials at Laurel Park were found to have not followed all of the proper procedures on the night of that December race. "I'm stabled at Laurel Park," said John Robb, the trainer of Glib, the second-place finisher who was declared the winner of the Juvenile Championship.

Litigants in the case against the State Center development in Baltimore are decrying a bill that passed the House of Delegates setting out new rules for public-private partnerships in Maryland. At issue is a provision that allows a party in such a suit to appeal a circuit court judge's denial of a motion to dismiss before the two sides are forced to exchange documents through the discovery process, and before they are allowed to present evidence at trial. The coalition of downtown property owners who are suing to stop State Center - attorneyPeter G. Angeloschief among them - is calling the bill, which applies to current as well as future cases, an extraordinary intervention by the legislature in an ongoing court proceeding.

The Maryland Senate voted yesterday to ban a late-term abortion procedure, the first time either chamber of the General Assembly has approved a major abortion restriction since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.The 25-22 vote sends the measure to the House, where another close vote is expected if the issue reaches the floor.Gov. Parris N. Glendening has pledged to veto the legislation because it does not include an exception to allow the procedure -- termed "partial-birth abortion" by opponents -- to protect a mother's health.

WASHINGTON -- Abortion-rights advocates in the Senate yesterday derailed a controversial bill that would outlaw "partial-birth" abortions, a development that abortion foes conceded was a resounding defeat for their legislative agenda.The anti-abortion bill, passed overwhelmingly by the House last week, was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the measure is certain to be significantly altered, with perhaps the most controversial provisions deleted.As written, the legislation would ban a rare but gruesome procedure associated with late-term abortions -- making it the first medical procedure ever to be banned by Congress.

Many teens are unhappy with their appearance and ask their parents for a "nose job," or rhinoplasty. But there are a lot of factors to consider, such as the limits of surgery, the long-term effects and possible complications, according to Dr. Patrick J. Byrne, a facial plastic surgery specialist who practices at the Johns Hopkins Cosmetic Center at Green Spring Station. Byrne, also an assistant professor at Hopkins School of Medicine, says there are better techniques to make the surgery successful, but this is still a big decision.

Attorneys for Dr. Mark Midei argued before a Baltimore Circuit Court judge Monday that the embattled cardiologist should get his medical license back, claiming the Board of Physicians stripped it from him last year after erroneously finding that Midei falsified patient records to justify the placement of unnecessary coronary stents. The judge gave no timeline for her decision. Midei, who is being sued by more than 200 former patients of St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, said after the hearing that he was "optimistic.