Cartiva (Alpharetta, Georgia), a company developing solutions to treat cartilage damage and osteoarthritis, has published a study demonstrating what it calls "significant clinical improvement" using its synthetic cartilage implant (SCI) in patients with osteoarthritis of the first carpometacarpal (CMC) joint at the base of the thumb, also known as basal thumb arthritis. Cartiva SCI is a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel that was designed to mimic natural cartilage, the company said.

It’s that fun time of even-numbered years again when events in Washington bog down with the impending congressional summer recess and the November elections hanging over the heads of nearly everyone in Congress. Despite that Damoclean discomfort, shouldn’t we be rewarded with a regular set of spending bills? Apparently not. As best as I can tell, Congress had passed no spending bills for fiscal 2015 on or about July 10, which means we’re almost certainly headed for another series of CRs, or continuing resolutions. The fate of H.R....

Two papers looking at subsets of patients from the EVEREST II (Endovascular Valve Edge-to-Edge REpair STudy) High-Risk registry and REALISM Continued Access Study High-Risk Arm show that Abbott Vascular's (Santa Clara, California) MitraClip could be beneficial in treating patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR). The papers were published in this month's Journal of the American College of Cardiology.