More articles from Highlights from Medical Grand Rounds

Survival rates following lung transplantation may approach 90% by the end of the century, thanks to improved graft preservation and immunosuppressive therapy.

Nonsurgical alternatives to cholecystectomy are costly and applicable to limited subsets of patients.

A carefully constructed history is usually adequate to diagnose vertigo from other forms of dizziness.

The changing demographics of cocaine abuse and its varied manifestations require a high index of suspicion for timely diagnosis and treatment.

Patients with uric acid renal calculi are best treated with hydration and urinary alkalinization, not surgery or lithotripsy.

The usual cause of hypersensitivity vasculitis is exposure to a drug or toxin, but infection, Henoch Schönlein purpura, and connective tissue diseases also are possible.

Most physicians underestimate their power to achieve smoking cessation; the key to success is persistence.

Although L-tryptophan is gone from the US market, research continues into its link with eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome.

In the absence of accurate noninvasive diagnostic modalities, aggressive use of mesenteric angiography is the only way to achieve early diagnosis of mesenteric ischemia.