Doctor-Reviewed Health Guides: Conditions, Procedures & Health News

Cancer rehabilitation is supportive care that helps prevent, relieve and reduce the physical and mental effects of cancer and its treatment, before, during and after therapy. A tailored team that may include physical, occupational and speech therapists treats problems such as fatigue, weakness, pain, swelling, balance issues and brain fog.

A bursa injection is a steroid shot, usually combined with a numbing medicine, placed into an inflamed bursa to ease bursitis pain and swelling in joints such as the hip, shoulder, elbow or knee. It often takes less than 10 minutes at a provider's office, starts working within a few days and can relieve symptoms for months.

Catheter ablation is a minimally invasive heart procedure that treats abnormal heart rhythms by threading thin tubes through a blood vessel to the heart and using heat, cold or pulsed energy to create tiny scars that block faulty electrical signals. It usually takes two to four hours, and people often go home the same day or the next.

Butt implants are silicone implants a plastic surgeon places inside or below the gluteal muscle to give flat or square-shaped buttocks a rounder, firmer shape. The result is permanent, but surgery takes several hours under general anesthesia, recovery takes weeks, and complications are common, so choosing an experienced surgeon matters.

Canthoplasty is an eyelid surgery that reshapes the canthus, the corner where the upper and lower eyelids meet, by tightening the tendon, muscle and connective tissue there. It treats sagging, tilted or uneven lids and conditions such as ectropion and entropion. Surgery takes 30 minutes to three hours, and full recovery usually takes two to four weeks.

The canalith repositioning procedure (CRP) is a series of guided head and body movements that moves loose calcium carbonate crystals out of an inner ear canal to treat benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). The Epley maneuver is the best-known version, takes about 5 to 10 minutes and relieves symptoms in about 8 out of 10 people.

A Brazilian butt lift (BBL) is cosmetic surgery that moves your fat to your buttocks for more volume, but it doesn't fix sagging skin. Fat is removed with liposuction, cleaned and injected above the muscle. You can't sit on your buttocks for at least 2 weeks, and the most serious risk is a fat embolism, which can be fatal.

Brain surgery is a procedure that treats problems in or around the brain, such as tumors, aneurysms, bleeding, extra fluid and epilepsy. Some types open the skull, while others reach the brain through a tiny hole, the nose or mouth, or a blood vessel. Surgery usually takes 2 to 6 hours or more, and recovery ranges from weeks to months.

Bone marrow aspiration is a test that takes a small sample of the liquid part of your bone marrow, usually from the back of the hipbone. Doctors use it to find the cause of blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and blood disorders like anemia. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes, and you go home the same day.

Breast implant removal is surgery to take out silicone or saline breast implants, sometimes along with scar tissue or leaked silicone. People choose it for complications such as capsular contracture, leaks, or BIA-ALCL, or because they no longer want implants. It is usually an outpatient procedure, and fever, chest pain or shortness of breath afterward need prompt medical care.

A blood transfusion is a hospital procedure in which you receive donated blood, or one part of it, through a thin tube in a vein after major blood loss or when a condition affects your blood cells. Most transfusions are safe with mild side effects; red cell transfusions take about 2–4 hours, plasma and platelets an hour or less.

Brachioplasty, also called an arm lift, is cosmetic surgery that removes loose upper-arm skin, tightens the tissue underneath and can remove stubborn fat. It suits people with a stable weight who don't smoke and accept a long scar on the inner or back of the arm. Results show right away, while swelling settles over a few weeks.

Brachytherapy is a cancer treatment that places tiny radioactive implants, about the size of a grain of rice, inside or right next to a tumor. The radiation shrinks or destroys the tumor while sparing nearby healthy tissue, and it works best for cancers that haven't spread. Anesthesia is given first, so the procedure shouldn't hurt.

Breast cancer surgery is the first step in treatment for most types of breast cancer. A lumpectomy removes the tumor with a small rim of healthy tissue, a mastectomy removes all breast tissue, and lymph node surgery checks for spread. Reconstruction can rebuild the breast. Recovery ranges from days to several weeks.

Bone grafting is surgery that places bone tissue, or a bone-like material, into a gap or weak spot in a bone to support it and trigger new bone growth. It treats fractures that heal slowly or not at all, bone disease and infection, and helps with spinal fusion, joint replacement and dental implants. Healing takes weeks to a year.

A blood type is a way of sorting blood by two markers on red blood cells, the ABO antigens and the RhD antigen, which create eight common types: A+, A−, B+, B−, AB+, AB−, O+ and O−. Blood types matter most for transfusions and transplants; O negative is the universal red cell donor and AB positive is the universal recipient.

Botox is a lab-made form of botulinum toxin type A that is injected into specific muscles to block the nerve signals that make them tighten. It smooths facial wrinkles and treats chronic migraine, excessive sweating, overactive bladder and muscle spasms. Results start in 3 to 4 days, peak at 10 to 14 days and fade after 3 to 6 months.

Blood sugar monitoring is checking your glucose with a glucose meter and finger stick or a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to see how well your diabetes plan is working. For most nonpregnant adults with diabetes, targets are 80–130 mg/dL before meals and under 180 mg/dL 1–2 hours after a meal starts; below 70 mg/dL is low.

Breast augmentation is a cosmetic surgery that increases breast size or improves breast shape using saline or silicone implants or fat transferred from your own body. Most people go home the same day, return to desk work after about 3 days and fully recover in 6 to 8 weeks. Implants are not lifelong, so later surgery is often needed.

Body contouring, also called body sculpting, is a group of procedures that reshape a specific area of the body by removing extra fat, loose skin, or both. It is not a weight-loss treatment. Nonsurgical options destroy fat cells with little downtime, while surgery such as liposuction, tummy tucks and lifts gives faster, more noticeable results with more risk.

A bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) is a small device that sends sound through the skull bone straight to the inner ear. A tiny titanium implant is placed behind the ear, and a sound processor clips on after the bone fuses, usually in 1 to 3 months. It mainly helps conductive or mixed hearing loss and single-sided deafness.

A biliary drain is a thin, flexible tube with small side holes that restores bile flow when a bile duct is blocked or narrowed. It is placed either through the skin and liver (PTBD) or through the mouth with an endoscope. Most people go home the same or next day; fever or new yellowing needs prompt care.

Balloon sinuplasty is a minimally invasive treatment for chronic sinusitis in which a doctor inflates a tiny balloon inside a blocked sinus opening to widen it so trapped mucus can drain. It involves no cuts, is usually considered after 12 weeks of symptoms despite medicine, and most people recover within one to two weeks.

Blood stem cell donation is a procedure that collects healthy blood-forming cells from a donor's bloodstream for a person who needs a stem cell (bone marrow) transplant. After 4–5 days of daily filgrastim injections, a machine filters stem cells from the blood over about 4–6 hours a day for 3–4 days. Side effects are usually mild and short-lived.