Over A Million Babies Die The First Day They Are Born - Medical News Today

Over A Million Babies Die The First Day They Are Born - Medical News Today

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 08 May 2013 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions   <!-- rate article

Patient / Public:

Healthcare Prof:

According to a new report released by "Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers", more than 1 million babies die the first day they are born (each year).

A newborn's first day is the most dangerous day of his/her life and a lot of these deaths can be avoided if more health safety measures are implemented, says Save The Children.

The data come from the world's first global analysis of the prevalence of newborns dying the first day they are born.

In addition to these findings the report also includes data about which country is the best place to be a mother. The index ranked the nations according to their education, incomes, and overall female political representation.

Finland ranked as the best country to be a mother with the Republic of the Congo being the worst.

Surprisingly, the U.S. did not rank as high as expected, below nearly all of Western Europe, as the 30th best place to be a mother .

The Mothers' Index rankings are determined by five indicators: education, income, women's political representation in her country and the chances a mother and her baby will survive.

The millennium development goals on child and maternal mortality is only on track for 9 out of 137 developing countries.

Birth Day Risk Index rankings

The new Birth Day Risk Index is a tool developed to calculate the risk of a baby dying on it's first day of birth. A total of 186 countries were assessed using this novel tool.

The analysis, which was conducted by Save the Children and the London School of Hygiene Tropical Medicine, revealed that the United States is riskier than 68 other countries.

In the developed world close to 60 percent of all first-day deaths occur in the United States. In 2011 nearly 11,300 American babies died on their first day.

Carolyn Miles, President CEO of Save the Children, said:

"It's hard to imagine the depth of one mother's pain in losing her baby the very day she gives birth, let alone a million times over. Yet, this report is full of hope.  It shows there is a growing movement to save newborn lives and growing evidence that we can do it - saving up to 75 percent of them with no intensive care whatsoever."

The global infant mortality rate has dropped drastically over the past two decades, from around 12 million deaths per year to only 7 million.

However, of these deaths, nearly 43 percent account for children during their newborn period - 15 percent of deaths occur on their first day.

Most of the deaths among newborns are due to prematurity or severe infections. The U.S. has a high rate of prematurity compared to other developed nations.

India is the country with most first-day deaths, with more than 300,000 occurring every year. Luxemburg, Singapore, and Sweden have the lowest ( at only 0.5 per 1,000).

Four products could save millions of lives

The report also indicates that there are four underutilized products which would save millions of newborn lives. The products (which are cheap and cost less than $6), include:

• A resuscitation device to help breathing
• Antiseptic chlorhexidine which prevents infection
• Injectable antibiotics
• Antenatal steroid injections to improve lung development among preterm babies

The authors state:

"Today we know that the 1st day of life offers unequaled opportunity to save lives and set the stage for a healthy future. A new analysis shows that wider use of four extremely low-cost products around birth could annually prevent 1 million deaths in the first month of life."

Sadly, despite lengthier active resuscitation of very preterm babies over the past 15 years, their survival rates have not improved, according to a report published in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Written by Joseph Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

• Additional
• References
• Citations

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

---

APA

---

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

---

Add Your Opinion On This Article

'Over A Million Babies Die The First Day They Are Born'

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.

Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions

MediLexicon International Ltd
Bexhill-on-Sea, United Kingdom
MediLexicon International Ltd © 2004-2013 All rights reserved.
MNT (logo) is the registered trade mark of MediLexicon International Ltd.

back to top | home | privacy policy

MediLexicon International Ltd
Bexhill-on-Sea, United Kingdom
MediLexicon International Ltd © 2004-2013 All rights reserved.
MNT (logo) is the registered trade mark of MediLexicon Int. Limited.

Christie's Lap-Band Surgery: Slow Weight...

Christie's Lap-Band Surgery: Slow Weight...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie revealed earlier this week that he had secretly undergone Lap-Band surgery in February to bring his weight under control, a top Christie aide told ABC News.

Lap-Band surgery is among the less-invasive forms of gastric band surgery. According to the company's website, the procedure is performed laparoscopically, meaning the surgeon makes a few small incisions in the abdomen, then uses long, thin surgical instruments to encircle the stomach with a silicone and titanium band.

Although as with any weight-loss surgery, the goal is massive weight loss, Dr. Jose Ponce, a bariatric surgeon and president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, explained that Lap-Band surgery differed from other types of weight-loss operations.

According to Ponce, the most popular type of bariatric surgery is gastric bypass. This involves cutting the stomach into smaller pouches, then rerouting the digestive tract to reduce the amount of food eaten and the amount of nutrients the body absorbs. Gastric bypass accounts for more than 50 percent of the 200,000 or so bariatric surgeries performed in the United States each year.

Another surgery, gastric sleeve, involves removing about 80 percent of the stomach, Ponce explained. He said this type of surgery also diminished the hunger-regulating hormones, so one of its benefits is that hunger is greatly reduced compared to other types of surgeries.

Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' chief health and medical correspondent, said he believed the governor may have chosen Lap-Band because it restricts food intake without making any surgical alterations to the digestive tract.

"Lap-Band really has the fewest complications and is the least invasive," he said.

Unlike the more radical procedures, Lap-Band can be done as a same day, outpatient procedure, and carries minimal complications, said Ponce. Bypass and sleeves can carry a higher immediate risk of leakage or bleeding from the staples, and can cause an infection. In the long term, however, about 5 percent of the time, the band can slip out of place or erode from exposure to stomach acids.

One other disadvantage of Lap-Band is that it requires multiple follow-up surgical visits. The band must be gradually tightened in a series of adjustments as the patient learns to eat smaller portions and chew more slowly.

Also, weight loss is much slower with Lap-Band compared to gastric bypass and gastric sleeve surgeries. Ponce said most Lap-Band patients lose one to two pounds a week, and that it can take two or more years to reach a healthy weight.

Christie has gone public about his struggles to lose weight over the years. During an appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" last February, presumably right before he underwent his Lap-Band surgery, he pulled out a doughnut and told the host his weight was "fair game" for comedians, who frequently make his size the butt of their jokes.

Although Christie has gone public about his actual weight, he said he's lost about 30 pounds since his surgery three months ago. Ponce said that seems about right.

Regardless of the weight-loss surgery chosen, Besser said there's always a chance these efforts will fail.

"You can't look at bariatric surgery as a cure all. Only about half of patients will have long-term success," Besser said. "Christie still needs to practice good eating habits, exercise and seek a supportive environment to keep the weight off long term."

Besser also emphasized that the country cannot "operate" its way out of the obesity crisis, which affects more than one-third of Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Prevention is best. But for someone who is already struggling with obesity, they may be left with no other option than surgery. For many severely obese, surgery can improve sleep apnea and diabetes and long-term weight loss, though not without its own side effects," Besser said.

Sucking on your kid's pacifier: good idea or gross?

Sucking on your kid's pacifier: good idea or gross?

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK | Mon May 6, 2013 12:51am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Toddlers are less likely to have asthma and itchy rashes if their parents "cleaned" their pacifiers by sucking on them when the kids were infants, a small new study suggests.

The findings don't prove that technique protects kids against asthma, eczema or other allergies. But researchers said it's possible the transfer of mouth microbes from parents to baby may help boost the bacterial diversity of the young child's digestive system and foster immunity.

"We know these bacteria are important for development," said Dr. Wilfried Karmaus from the University of Memphis, who has studied asthma and eczema but wasn't involved in the new research.

Being delivered through a vaginal birth, for example, exposes babies to more of their moms' bacteria and has been linked to fewer allergies in childhood. But no one has ever looked at transfer of bacteria through pacifiers, Karmaus said.

For the new study, researchers recruited pregnant women at one Swedish hospital and followed them and their children through phone calls and exams over three years. The 184 infants in the study were pa rticularly allergy-prone: 80 percent had at least one parent with allergies.

When the babies were six months old, 65 parents reported "cleaning" their pacifiers by sucking on them. Most parents also said they rinsed pacifiers with tap water.

The children were then brought in for allergy testing at 18 and 36 months of age.

At the first visit, 46 of them had eczema and 10 had asthma symptoms. Kids whose pacifiers had been sucked on by parents were 63 percent less likely to have eczema at 18 months and 88 percent less likely to have asthma, compared to the children of parents who didn't use that cleaning technique.

By 36 months, the difference had gone away for asthma. Parental pacifier sucking was still tied to a 49-percent lower chance of a child having eczema, researchers led by Dr. Bill Hesselmar from Queen Silvia Children's Hospital in Gothenburg found.

There was no clear link be tween parents' pacifier cleaning method and babies' sensitization to common allergens, such as cat and dog dander or eggs and peanuts, at either age.

In a smaller analysis of 33 infants, the researchers found that babies whose parents did or didn't suck on their pacifiers had different types of bacteria living in their mouths, the group reported Monday in Pediatrics.

"With the different oral flora, it supports the hypothesis and the findings," Hesselmar told Reuters Health.

Still, he said the study can't prove the pacifier cleaning method protected kids against asthma and eczema, and that it's too early to recommend this technique to parents.

"It's always hard to tell if it's the only explanation, but we have tried to analyze as many other possibilities as we can think of," he said.

"This is a simple measure which is really, really nice," Karmaus said. "But we need a trial to be re ally sure that this is protective."

A gold-standard trial would involve randomly assigning some parents to regularly clean pacifiers by sucking on them and others to never use that method. In the current study, Karmaus said, it's possible parents who decided on their own to suck on their child's pacifier were different from parents who didn't in other important, allergy-related ways.

"It could be that these parents have more time with their children, a less stressful relationship with their children, hug their children more or whatever," he told Reuters Health.

For now, he said, parents should know that using their mouth to clean an infant's pacifier may be worth trying - and at the very least, shouldn't be harmful.

That technique may also be a necessity from time to time, Karmaus noted.

"Sometimes you take two or three pacifiers with you but if all are dirty and your child is cryi ng, there's nothing you can do" but clean it yourself.

SOURCE: bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics, online May 6, 2013.

Obamacare is on the horizon, but will enough people sign up?

Obamacare is on the horizon, but will enough people sign up?

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON | Sun May 5, 2013 7:03am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Healthcare reform should be the signature Democratic achievement of President Barack Obama's presidency.

But with "Obamacare" five months from show time, Democrats are worried about whether enough Americans will sign up to make the sweeping healthcare overhaul a success - and what failure might mean for Congress heading into the 2016 presidential race.

Some of the law's main advocates fear that not enough of America's 49 million uninsured will know about health coverage offered in their own states. Even if they do, new insurance plans may not be attractive to young, healthy consumers needed to offset an expected influx of older and sicker patients.

Only a handful of states are beginning campaigns to promote the online health insurance marketplaces created by the law. Known as exchanges, the markets will offer private coverage at federally subsidized rates to individuals and families with low-to-moderate incomes, with enrollment set to begin October 1.

The federal government has kept quiet about its p romotion plans, which are expected to begin in earnest over the summer.

While Obama and his administration say they are working nonstop on reform, analysts believe a poor performance could make the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a big enough campaign issue in 2014 to jeopardize Democratic control of the Senate - particularly if insurance costs rise sharply.

"There is reason to be very concerned about what's going to happen with young people. If their (insurance) premiums shoot up, I can tell you, that is going to wash into the United States Senate in a hurry," said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat.

Some Democrats are frustrated about the lack of details surrounding administration plans to promote the exchanges.

Senator Max Baucus, a chief architect of the reform law, said federal outreach efforts deserve a failing grade so far and could be heading for a "huge train wreck." He critici zed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for the scant information her department has provided.

FUNDING EMBARGO

"Why in late April can't they show us any of what they've got planned? The rollout plan should already be in existence," an exasperated Democratic Senate aide said separately.

The law is expected to cover 15 million Americans next year through the exchanges and an expansion of Medicaid. The overall number is forecast to jump to 38 million by 2022.

Reform is facing challenges on several fronts. Big insurers appear wary of participating, raising questions about how competitive the exchanges will be. Businesses are mounting a new legal effort to stop the use of federal subsidies in exchanges run by Washington. And most states have balked at the exchanges and the Medicaid expansion.

Meanwhile, the enrollment effort is under threat from months of delay, a cong ressional Republican embargo on new funding and worries about how affordable the new plans will be, according to analysts, lawmakers, congressional aides and former officials.

"I don't see how what they're planning to do is going to be adequate. The resources are too limited, the (law's) penalties are too weak and elite opposition in much of the country will undermine" enrollment, said Paul Starr, a Princeton professor and former health adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Add to that the challenge of reaching a public that is highly skeptical and often misinformed about the most complex social legislation since Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 77 percent of Americans know little or nothing about exchanges, while 40 percent erroneously think reforms create a government panel to make end-of-life decisions for people on Medicare.

An April survey of 1,003 people by HealthPocket, an online company that helps consumers find insurance, also found that the law's penalty for not buying coverage would not induce most 25-to-34-year-olds or 18-to-24-year-olds to purchase it.

GLITCHES AND BUMPS

Obama this week defended the pace of implementation, telling reporters that the government was working hard to "make sure that we're hitting all the deadlines and the benchmarks" even with the challenge of building the new online exchanges.

"That's still a big, complicated piece of business," Obama said, adding the task was made harder by a dedicated Republican opposition still determined to block the law's implementation.

"Even if we do everything perfectly, there'll still be, you know, glitches and bumps," he said.

The administration is building exchanges in 33 states that are unwilling or unable to do so on their own, and has limited funds for mark eting. The remaining 17 states are building their own and have received sizable budgets for outreach.

Among states taking the lead, Vermont has launched radio advertising to raise public awareness. Colorado begins its public outreach this month, while California, Maryland and the District of Columbia will hold off until later in the year.

For the federal exchanges, HHS has a contract worth at least $8 million with public relations firm Weber Shandwick and $54 million to train and pay "navigators," or counselors who will help consumers choose a health plan. It also has a $28 million contract with General Dynamics to set up a call center and will make its Healthcare.gov website consumer-oriented.

The administration is seeking help from major U.S. insurance providers to market aggressively to consumers on the federally run exchanges and help convince healthy citizens between 26 to 45 to pay for insurance instead of a firs t-year penalty amounting to $95 per person or 1 percent of household income.

BLOWING UP

But reform advocates worry that the HHS budget is too small and the spigot for new funding from Congress is shut off by partisan politics. The "navigator" program allocates just $600,000 each for 13 states including Delaware, Iowa, Kansas and New Hampshire.

"There's a limited amount of money that should be increased. But that's subject to appropriations and Congress is not likely to appropriate additional money," said Ron Pollack of the advocacy group Families USA. "It's going to require a very robust effort in the private sector."

Analysts say reform could be as big an issue in next year's congressional midterm elections as it was in 2010, when dislike for the law among senior citizens helped install a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. This time, failed implementation could end Democratic hopes of recapturing the House and leave enough Senate Democrats vulnerable to give Republicans an edge in that chamber.

"We have to see how bad it is. This issue blowing up on Democrats would make the Republicans' job a lot easier," said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report.

But Democrats believe implementation will also provide favorable coverage of deserving individuals and families finally being able to secure adequate and affordable health coverage after a long sojourn through the current marketplace.

There has been encouraging news for consumers. Vermont says 2014 premium rates will save money for residents. A family of four with an annual income of $75,000 would pay less than $600 per month for coverage with a federal subsidy, versus $900 for the cheapest small group plan available today.

(Additional reporting by Sharon Begley and Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Mar y Milliken and Lisa Shumaker)

Urology group stops recommending routine PSA test - USA Today

Urology group stops recommending routine PSA test - USA Today

The American Urological Association, which has staunchly defended the PSA screening test in recent years, now says healthy men under 55 don't need routine annual screening.

The American Urological Association, which has staunchly defended the PSA screening test in recent years, now says there's no need for men under 55 to consider the test. And men ages 55 to 69 who are considering PSA should consult their doctors about the test's benefits and risks, according to a new policy announced Friday.(Photo: Steve Earley, The Virginian-Pilot, via AP)

In a major break from the past, a leading medical group is advising men to think carefully before getting getting screened for prostate cancer.

The American Urological Association, which has staunchly defended the PSA screening test in recent years, says healthy men under 55 don't need routine annual screening. And men ages 55 to 69 who are considering the PSA should consult their doctors about the test's benefits and risks, according to a new policy announced Friday. Until now, the group had advised healthy men ages 40 and up to ask their doctors about the PSA.

Authors of the new guidelines "learned very quickly that there really was no high-level evidence supporting the use of screening with PSA," says urologist H. Ballentine Carter, who chaired the panel that wrote the new guidelines.

Some men and their doctors may be reluctant to stop screening, says Carter, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

"The public is very enthusiastic about screening, partly because of our messaging," Carter says. "The idea that screening delivers benefits may have been overexaggerated."

But Carter notes that "if a physician and patient sit down and the patient really, really understands the risks and benefits, then it's been absolutely proven that a substantial minority will not choose to be screened."

Given the limited benefits of the PSA, and the risks from cancer treatment, the urology group doesn't recommend PSA screening for men 70 and older who are expected to live less than 10 to 15 more years.

Men with prostate pain or other problems should still talk to their doctors about their symptoms, the group says. Younger men at high risk of prostate cancer should also ask their doctor's advice. Men at higher risk include African Americans and those with a very strong family history of prostate cancer, defined as cancer that develops before age 50, in multiple first-degree re latives, such as fathers or brothers, Carter says.

"It's a big change," Carter says. "An obvious questions is, 'Why is the (urology group) all of a sudden changing their stance?'"

Urologists have mostly continued to promote the PSA, even as other medical groups have backed away from recommending the blood tests. Last year, the urology group harshly criticized a federal expert panel that suggested men avoid the PSA entirely.

Carter notes that the group's 2009 "best practices" statement, which encouraged PSA testing, was based on a consensus of expert opinion.

The new guidelines were based strictly on medical evidence from rigorously designed clinical trials, Carter says. Urologists considered the same evidence used by the federal panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Urologists also followed standard guidelines for making health recommendations, set out by the Institute of Medicine, he says.

"This was a much more sound scientific proce ss," says prostate surgeon Peter Scardino, chair of the surgery department at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Research suggests that PSA screening may prevent one death from prostate cancer for every 1,000 men screened over a 10-year period, the urology group says. Yet many men who undergo PSA screening will be harmed, because of treatments that can lead to incontinence or impotence. Even undergoing a prostate biopsy, in which prostate tissue is removed with needles, puts men at risk for being hospitalized for an infection or other complication.

The urologists' stance on prostate cancer screening is now more in line with that of the American Cancer Society and five other medical groups, which emphasize "shared decision-making" â€" they advise men to talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of PSA. Three medical groups, including the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, advise men to skip screening.

The new recommendations are a "radical change," but a welcome one, says Michael Palese, associate professor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who was not involved in writing them.

"It will help to change the current climate of over-biopsy and overreaction when it comes to PSA," Palese says. "On the other hand, we do need to continue to keep a vigilant watch on those patients who have prostate cancer that should be treated and will benefit from treatment."

Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society's chief medical officer, says the urology group's official statement on screening has always been more nuanced than many people â€" including its members â€" realized. That's led many individual urologists to strongly promote the PSA to patients, while minimizing the risks.

"Some of the doctors just don't understand the technical issues in screening and don't understand what the risks are," Brawley says.

Suicide Rate Spikes in Vietnam Vets Who Won't Seek Help

Suicide Rate Spikes in Vietnam Vets Who Won't Seek Help

Every Christmas Rudi Gresham, a former combat soldier in Vietnam, gets a Christmas card from a fellow veteran who was nearly pushed to the brink of suicide because of despair.

"The guy was in his late 50s and his wife had left him and he came down with cancer from Agent Orange, he was broke and he had to move in with his mom and dad--he didn't know where to go from there," said Gresham, who was then serving as senior advisor to the Department of Veterans Affairs under the George W. Bush administration.

"Everything had gone to hell," said Gresham. "But I communicated with him."

Now 68 and retired in South Carolina, Gresham was able to get the veteran the 10 years of back pay he deserved by authenticating his service with a commanding officer. Today, the man's cancer is under control and he has a new woman in his life.

Gresham said getting that thank you card for saving the veteran's life was "the most gratifying moment" in his eight-year career with the VA. "I tell my kids, this is the reward for my work."

But three other depressed friends were not so lucky and took their own lives, becoming statistics in a rising tide of suicides among baby boomers, many of them Vietnam War veterans.

Just this week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its latest statistics on suicide rates among Americans, finding that the number of middle-aged Americans who took their own lives was up more than 28 percent.

These statistics reversed a longtime demographic trend for the generation born between 1946 and 1964: The suicide rate for people in this group rose by about 30 percent in the decade ending in 2010. The rate for people over 85, formerly the most likely to kill themselves, dropped by 12 percent, according to the CDC.

Analyzing the National Vital Statistics System for mortality data between 1999 and 2010, the CDC said the annual age-adjusted suicide rate among those aged 35 to 64 was 17.6 percent per 100,000. For people ages 45 to 54, the suicide rate was 19.6 per 100,000 in 2010. For people ages 55 to 64, it was 17.5 per 100,000.

For the whole population, the national rate was 12.4 per 100,000 in that decade, according to the CDC. The most common mechanisms were suffocation or hanging, poisoning and firearms. Increases were seen among both men and women.

The CDC cites the recent economic downturn, a "cohort effect" among baby boomers who had unusually high suicide rates during their adolescent years, and a rise in intentional overdoses because of increased availability of prescription opiods.

But suicide rates among Vietnam veterans are the highest of any particular group, according to John Draper, project director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Eight million Americans report suicidal thoughts, and 1.1 million will attempt suicide. An estimated 38,000 will succeed in killing themselves, according to the CDC. Most are male, by a four to one margin, and are single and lack a college education.

"Men tend to be more lonely and have a harder time maintaining and replacing relationships than women, especially when they get into middle age," said Draper. "Men are busy working or tie their relationships to work and when they lose their job, they lose their relationships."

Those who are less stable in their personal lives are also less stable in the workforce, he said.

Dr. Jacquelin Perry, Who Aided Polio Victims, Dies at 94

Dr. Jacquelin Perry, Who Aided Polio Victims, Dies at 94

Dr. Jacquelin Perry, a physician and researcher who shed light on the complexities of walking, and was a leader in treating polio victims in the 1950s and again in the ’80s when the symptoms of some returned, died on March 11 at her home in Downey, Calif. She was 94.

Her death was announced by the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, where she worked for more than 60 years. Dr. Perry earned wide attention for her work in analyzing the human gait, which she broke down into eight motion patterns governed by 28 major muscles in each leg. Her 1992 book, “Gait Analysis: Normal and Pathological Function,” became a standard text for orthopedists, physical therapists and other rehabilitation professionals.

To break walking, running, stair-climbing and other human ambulations into discrete components, illustrated with precise photographs, Dr. Perry used ultrasound studies, motion analysis and electromyography, which traces the nerve pathways through muscle using electric charges. “The author’s level of expertise and clear, logical presentation make this text a definitive reference,” Suzanne R. Babyar wrote in The Journal of Physical Education. A second edition, written with Dr. Judith Burnfield, was published in 2010.

In the mid-1950s, as one of the few women to rise to orthopedic surgeon in the United States, Dr. Perry developed surgical techniques for straightening curved spines and fusing shattered vertebrae. She collaborated with Dr. Vernon Nickel to come up with a new surgery for paralyzed polio patients after they had emerged from iron lungs. To provide stability for weakened necks, they invented a mechanical device that included a vest and a ring around the patient’s head, called a “halo.” The device immobilized the spine, neck and head and became widely used in hospitals.

In the 1980s, doctors began seeing former polio patients complaining of extreme fatigue, muscle weakness, debilitating joint pain, breathing difficulty and intolerance of cold. Dr. Perry was a leader in tracing the symptoms to the overuse of muscles and nerves in combating and recovering from polio. The condition became known as post-polio syndrome.

“The people just push themselves more than most of us,” she said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 1985. “They’ve put up with signs of strain to live a normal life. I always say people who had polio are overachievers, because so many of them are out to prove they can do just as well as those who didn’t have it. But now, the strain has accumulated, and tissues are aging prematurely.”

She traveled the world speaking about the syndrome, offering a simple remedy: rest.

Jacquelin Perry was born on May 31, 1918, in Denver and was raised in Los Angeles. “I knew at about age 10 I wanted to be a doctor,” she said in a speech in 2000. “I read every medical book in the Los Angeles library.”

She earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1940 and then joined the Army and trained to be a physical therapist. The Army assigned her to a hospital in Hot Springs, Ark., where polio patients were treated. She earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1950, as one of seven women in her class of 76. After completing her residency in San Francisco, she was recruited by the Rancho rehabilitation center to start its physical therapy program for patients with polio and other diseases.

Dr. Perry was an active surgeon until a brain artery blockage forced her to stop operating. She then devoted much of her time to studying the biomechanics of walking. As part of her research, she investigated how muscles and joints behave when spinal-cord injury patients propel themselves in wheelchairs, and how below-the-knee amputees are able to walk with prosthetic feet.

Dr. Perry, who left no immediate survivors, taught at the University of Southern California’s medical school from 1972 to the late 1990s and established a scholarship there for the study of the human gait. She wrote more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and 38 book chapters, in addition to her classic textbook.

Though her advice to post-polio patients was to take it easy, she had little interest in doing the same. She went to work until the week before her death.