Low-intensity extracorporeal shockwave therapy similar to that used to fragment kidney stones or gallstones is a new option for treatment of erectile dysfunction that is now being advertised extensively in the US. It has not been approved by the FDA for treatment of erectile dysfunction.

The FDA has approved daprodustat (Jesduvroq – GSK), a hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor (HIF-PHI), for oral treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults who have been on dialysis for at least 4 months. It is the first HIF-PHI and the first oral drug to be approved in the US for this indication.

Patients with seasonal allergies often experience nasal itching and congestion, sneezing, rhinorrhea, and itchy, watery eyes. Oral, intranasal, and ophthalmic preparations are widely available over the counter (OTC) for relief of symptoms. Prescription products for management of allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis are reviewed separately.

Methylphenidate (Ritalin and others), a Schedule II controlled substance in the USA, is a short-acting central-nervous-system stimulant widely used for treatment of children with school performance or behavior problems, or what is now called Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, or AD-HD (American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third ed., revised [DSM-III R], Washington, DC:authors, 1987, p 50). Some studies have estimated that more than 3% of elementary school students are taking methylphenidate, and one parents' group has brought a...

The gram-positive bacillus Clostridium difficile is the most common identifiable cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis (R Fekety in GL Mandell et al, eds, Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, 3rd ed, New York:Churchill Livingstone, 1990, page 863). C. difficile colitis usually develops during or soon after antibiotic treatment. Virtually any antimicrobial agent can cause the disorder, but clindamycin, ampicillin and the cephalosporins have been implicated most frequently. Pseudomembranous colitis was recently reported in five patients who had ...

The Norplant System (Wyeth-Ayerst) for subdermal delivery of the synthetic progestin levonorgestrel was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use as a long-term contraceptive.

BCG Live (TheraCys - Connaught) and BCG Vaccine U.S.P. (TiceBCG - Organon), freeze-dried suspensions of an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis, were recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for intravesical treatment of primary or relapsed carcinoma in situ of the bladder, with or without associated papillary tumors. BCG is not recommended for treatment of papillary tumors occurring alone.

The prognosis in breast cancer is generally poor for women with unresectable, locally advanced disease (inflammatory cancer or more than 10 positive lymph nodes) and for those with metastases. Autologous bone marrow transplantation - removing bone marrow from multiple sites under general anesthesia, giving high-dose chemotherapy with or without total body radiation, and reinfusing the bone marrow intravenously - is being tried in some of these patients.

Recombinant human deoxyribonuclease I (rhDNase; dornase alfa; Pulmozyme - Genentech), an enzyme that hydrolyzes extracellular DNA, is now available as a purified solution to decrease the viscosity of sputum in patients with cystic fibrosis. It requires a nebulizer to produce an aerosol mist for inhalation.

High-dose chemotherapy, with or without total body radiation, followed by bone marrow transplantation to restore bone marrow function has been used widely in the treatment of malignant diseases in recent years (Medical Letter, 34:79, 1992; 37:25, 1995). Now, however, instead of using bone marrow itself to restore function destroyed by chemotherapy and radiation, many centers infuse hematopoietic stem cells harvested from peripheral blood. Most stem cell transplants have been autologous; allogeneic stem cells have been tried in a small number of patients (WI Bensinger et al, Blood,...