Publications by authors named "Vania E Fernandez"

Traditionally, intrathecal therapy has been used for pain amelioration in cancer patients, but now has indications for nonmalignant chronic pain conditions. Due to its expanding use, it is imperative to understand the risks and management of intrathecal pump implantation. This case illustrates a series of uncommon intrathecal pump complications in a 52-year-old woman with complex regional pain syndrome.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Every day, people of all ages in the United States break bones, with traumatic injury being the most common way, and wrist injury being in the top five most common areas in which bones break. Traumatic fractures are managed with either surgical or nonsurgical approaches. The surgical approach utilizes ortho procedures such as internal fixation and reduction, while the nonsurgical approach consists of procedures like RICE, ace bandage, and so on.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

When a clinician, especially one who is specialized in primary care is faced with presenting complaints of deep, sharp, anterior chest pain, the most common differential diagnoses include cardiac and gastrointestinal pain. Musculoskeletal pain is thought of less frequently as a possible root cause. In this case report, we describe the clinical journey of a female athlete who presented with complaints of burning anterior chest pain.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chronic respiratory infections in cystic fibrosis result from CFTR channel mutations but how these impair antibacterial defense is less clear. Airway host defense depends on lactoperoxidase (LPO) that requires thiocyanate (SCN-) to function and epithelia use CFTR to concentrate SCN- at the apical surface. To test whether CFTR mutations result in impaired LPO-mediated host defense, CF epithelial SCN- transport was measured.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cystadenomas are usually found in the extra-hepatic bile ducts in conjunction with multilocular cysts in the liver. Cystadenoma of the gallbladder itself is a rare finding, cited only once in the literature as the cause of extrinsic obstruction of the common bile duct (5). In this report, we describe the endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticographic (ERCP) detection of intrinsic obstruction of the cystic duct and common bile duct by such a tumor in a 47-yr-old woman.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF