Bariatric surgery is an increasingly popular way to treat morbid obesity. More than 170,000 Americans undergo the surgery each year, 10 times more than in the mid-1990s. Two recent studies by UC Irvine Medical Center surgeons compared the outcome, quality of life and cost of the two most performed procedures…
As a specialist in skin disorders and cancers, UC Irvine dermatologist Dr. Janellen Smith sees firsthand what too much sun can do. Sun exposure is the No. 1 cause of premature aging; it can also be deadly. Each year, more than one million Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer, the…
When Brent Wong graduated in June with UC Irvine's first nursing science class, he didn't have to go far to land a job. Wong works as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at UC Irvine Douglas Hospital, and he's already making a big difference in the lives…
When Ken Mitchell first met UCI Health transplant surgeon Dr. Clarence Foster, he was a diabetic in kidney failure. Mitchell, a 42-year-old caterer, had to prick his finger eight times a day to test his blood sugar. His condition required four-hour dialysis sessions, four times a week. His life was…
Nearly 600,000 hysterectomies are performed each year in the United States—a rate unchanged since World War II. Uterine fibroids, benign tumors in and around the uterine walls, account for half these procedures. UCI Health radiologist Dr. Scott Goodwin wants to change that. "The interventional radiologist has a tool that may…
Each year, millions of Americans develop cancerous skin lesions. The vast majority of these are easily treated and highly survivable, but some are—or could become—melanomas, which can be aggressive and potentially deadly. The causes of skin cancer vary, ranging from excessive sun exposure to family genetics. People who have numerous…
When retiree Dan Christensen moved to Orange County from his native Oregon in September 2010, he immediately began searching for volunteer opportunities. "I wanted to be somewhat intellectually stimulated so that I didn’t get rusty, so to speak," Christensen says. His wife, Susan Christensen suggested he look at UC Irvine…
Hemorrhaging and without a pulse, new mother Stephanie Shaffer appeared close to death in an intensive care unit at UC Irvine Medical Center. Shaffer suffers from Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, a rare congenital vascular disorder that affects blood and lymph vessels. Soon after giving birth to her son, Brian, at a south…
Citing UC Irvine's award-winning Program in Geriatrics, the U.S. Administration on Aging has designated UC Irvine as the National Center on Elder Abuse, a clearinghouse for practical information supporting federal, state and local efforts to prevent, identify and effectively respond to elder abuse. The agency will provide funding of $561,000…
For epilepsy specialist Jack J. Lin, MD, patient cases don’t come much more rewarding than Thomas Phelan’s. The Irvine boy’s mother had been seeking medical help ever since his staring spells prompted a preschool official to write him off as autistic, destined to live out his life in a group…
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