Penn Today Online

Clinical Briefing: Neurosurgical Advances at Penn - Awake Craniotomy for Resection of Oligodendroglioma
The spectrum of surgical options at Penn Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery includes awake craniotomy, which uses functional MR imaging intraoperatively to delineate the relationship between infiltrative glial tumors and speech and motor pathways in the brain. The techniques of awake craniotomy surgery permit Penn neurosurgeons to preserve functional tissue within the motor and speech cortex with greater reliability and better tumor resection than other forms of brain surgery.

Clinical Briefing: Penn Heart Rescue® for ST Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center created its Heart Rescue program in 2007 to shorten the time between the diagnosis of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMI) in regional hospital emergency departments (EDs) and cardiac catheterization at Penn Presbyterian’s interventional cardiac catherization lab.

Clinical Briefing: Restoration of Immunity in Lymphopenic Patients with Cancer via Immunotherapy with Vaccination and Adoptive T cell Transfer of Vaccine-Primed Activated Autologous T Cells
Researchers at Penn Medicine’s Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) have combined vaccination with in vivo vaccine-primed autologous T cells that were subsequently costimulated and expanded ex vivo prior to reinfusion to successfully induce clinically relevant immunity in lymphopenic myeloma patients following high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Clinical Briefing: Surgical Management of Severe Glenohumeral Chondrolysis in Younger Patients
Surgeons at the Penn Shoulder and Elbow Service are repairing advanced chondrolysis of the shoulder in patients younger than 40 years of age by combining a regenerative tissue matrix with an unstemmed, resurfacing humeral prosthesis. The combined therapy effectively addresses the progressive and destructive effects associated with chondrolysis, including damage to the articular cartilage of the humeral and glenoid bearing surfaces.

Clinical Briefing: Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Transplantation for Patients with Hematologic Malignancies
Researchers with the Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant program at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania are seeking to hasten immune system reconstitution and hematopoietic recovery in patients with hematologic malignancies receiving umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation.