‘You Have No Idea How Much It Pains Me’: What We Heard This Week

— Quotable quotes heard by MedPage Today‘s reporters

by
MedPage Today Staff

September 17, 2023

“You have no idea how much it pains me to conclude that extended pleurectomy/decortication — an operation that we have been offering for over 70 years — has been associated with a higher risk of death, more serious complications, poorer quality of life, and higher costs.” — Eric Lim, MD, a thoracic surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, discussing new randomized trial data in operable mesothelioma.

“This is a done deal. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t work.” — FDA advisory panel member Paul Pisarik, MD, MPH, of ArchWell Health in Tulsa, Oklahoma, speaking about the over-the-counter oral decongestant phenylephrine.

“Light wind for benefit and no wind for risk.” — Edward Kasper, MD, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, weighing the benefit-risk calculus on patisiran (Onpattro) for transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy during an FDA advisory meeting.

“Not only are some anesthesiologists choosing now to intubate patients on these meds for seemingly minor procedures, but they are also likely performing a technique we use in patients at high risk for aspiration.” — Kathryn Cobb, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discussing how some anesthesiologists manage surgical patients on GLP-1 receptor agonists.

“The pandemic has hit medical students hard, just like the rest of the world, and medical students were already suffering pre-pandemic.” — J. Wesley Boyd, MD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, on out-of-network costs for mental health treatment that medical students face.

“While Huntington’s is a rare disease, it is a microcosm of neurodegenerative disease in the United States.” — Daniel Claassen, MD, MS, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, about differences between Black and white patients with Huntington’s disease.