Surgery

Brian Price, once a wrecking ball on UCLA's defensive line, has beaten long odds to return to the NFL after two off-season surgeries aimed at keeping his hamstrings attached to his pelvis, rather than breaking loose and coiling down the backs of his thighs. For Price, who will start at defensive tackle Sunday for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, his excruciating recovery was a 10-step process. Meaning just two months ago, he could run only 10 steps. "You have these doubts in your head at times," said Price, a second-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2010 who, because of his congenitally malformed pelvis, spent the last half of his rookie season on injured reserve.

Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis returned home from the hospital Thursday, five days after undergoing emergency surgery on his left leg. Ellis was injured last Friday when Tyler Greene of the St. Louis Cardinals slid into him at second base. The next day, Ellis had fluid and blood drained from his leg. The procedure was required because the pressure on Ellis' muscles and joints was building. Team physician Neal ElAttrache told Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly that Ellis was several hours away from losing the lower part of his leg. Ellis is expected to be sidelined for six weeks.

The PSA test should be abandoned as a prostate cancer screening tool, a government advisory panel has concluded after determining that the side effects from needless biopsies and treatments hurt many more men than are potentially helped by early detection of cancers. At best, one life will be saved for every 1,000 men screened over a 10-year period, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. But 100 to 120 men will have suspicious results when there is no cancer, triggering biopsies that can carry complications such as pain, fever, bleeding, infection and hospitalization.

OAKLAND — What seemed like a routine slide into second base turned into a major injury for Vernon Wells , who will undergo surgery Tuesday to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, a procedure that will sideline the Angels left fielder for eight to 10 weeks. "He thought it popped out and back in — that happens a lot, and guys usually work through it," Manager Mike Scioscia said of Wells, who was injured in the second inning of Sunday's 3-2 loss to San Diego. "But the next inning, there was no chance of him swinging a bat, and we knew it was significant.

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has taken an unusual step to try to strengthen his ailing right knee, undergoing an innovative procedure in Germany about a month ago, according to four people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly. The treatment is a derivation of platelet-rich plasma therapy. PRP procedures are less invasive than many surgeries involving the knee and are viewed as either an emerging solution to knee problems or a financial gamble on unproven science.

Roger Ebert, who has undergone a series of cancer surgeries, was recovering Friday after having yet another operation. The 65-year-old film critic had successful surgery Thursday in Houston to address complications from previous operations, his lawyer said in a statement. No details were provided. Ebert, a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 40 years, has undergone a series of operations, including the removal of a growth on his salivary gland and a tracheotomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, that left him unable to speak.

Brett Favre recently underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damage to his throwing shoulder, leaving open the possibility he could return to play quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, according to an ESPN report Sunday citing two unnamed sources. Favre's agent, Bus Cook, did not immediately return an e-mail about the report, but declined to either confirm or deny the surgery to ESPN.com, telling the website: "That's a confidential client privilege." Although the Vikings too declined to comment on the report, it's clear that Minnesota is the only potential landing spot for Favre, should he decide to again come out of retirement.

Mike Wallace is recovering from triple heart bypass surgery performed last week, CBS News said Tuesday. Wallace, 89, is already walking following the surgery Friday to bypass blockages near his heart. Doctors are calling the operation "a great success," the network said. Recovery from heart bypass surgery generally takes about six weeks. The veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent, who is essentially retired, recently interviewed Roger Clemens about allegations of steroid abuse.

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard will have a season-ending back surgery Friday in Los Angeles to repair a herniated disk in his lower back that has sidelined him for two weeks. The surgery will likely keep him out for four months, preventing him from participating in the playoffs and playing with the U.S. National team at the London Olympics. "It hurts [emotionally]," Howard told ESPN the Magazine's Chris Broussard. "That's the first thing -- it hurts. And then with people saying and thinking I'm quitting on my team.

For millions of people, the quietest room is never quiet enough. Even when surrounded by silence, they can hear a ringing or buzzing in their ears that drives them to distraction. The sound is called tinnitus, and sufferers — often people with hearing trouble thanks to advanced age or loud sounds — are willing to go to great lengths to stop the noise. Some plead with their doctors to cut their hearing nerves completely, but even this drastic measure won't help. The few patients who have had the procedure could still hear their tinnitus — and nothing else.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said Sunday that the team doctor told him second baseman Mark Ellis was within several hours of possibly having his left leg amputated if Ellis hadn't had emergency surgery. "That was scary," Mattingly said of the injury, which is expected to keep Ellis out of action for six weeks. "I didn't realize how bad that was. " Ellis, 34, suffered the injury Friday when he was upended by the St. Louis Cardinals' Tyler Greene to break up a double play.

The Dodgers won another game, but lost another player. On the same day they defeated the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, 6-0, second baseman Mark Ellis underwent an emergency leg operation that is expected to sideline him for a minimum of six weeks. Ellis, who was injured when Tyler Greene of the Cardinals slid into him at second base the previous night, had blood and fluids drained from his left leg. He is scheduled to be hospitalized until Tuesday. He became the fourth Dodgers starter on the disabled list.

Adali Gutierrez rarely mentioned his scarred and disfigured chin. He kept quiet about the mangled lower lip that twisted when he talked. A 21-year-old raising four orphaned siblings had bigger worries. Today, however, he speaks without hesitation. A plastic surgeon has fashioned him a new lip and smoothed over the divots in his skin. Faded are the lesions that reminded him constantly of the night his parents were gunned down in Mexico. It was January 2010. Maria and Guillermo Sr. had arrived at a police station to bail out Adali, who had been stopped for drunk driving.

Left fielder Juan Rivera could be sidelined for as long as two months, trainer Sue Falsone said. Rivera was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a left hamstring injury. Falsone revealed that he, in fact, has a ruptured tendon. Surgery hasn't been ruled out. Utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr. joined Rivera on the disabled list Friday with a strained hamstring. Hairston's place on the active roster was taken by Justin Sellers, who was recalled from triple-A Albuquerque.

— The Angels suffered a significant loss Thursday, on the eve of a highly anticipated series against the Texas Rangers. Chris Iannetta will need surgery on his right wrist, a procedure that is expected to sideline the catcher for six to eight weeks. Iannetta is hitting .197 with a .312 on-base percentage, three home runs and nine runs batted in. He suffered the injury when he was hit by a pitch on May 2, the night he caught Jered Weaver's no-hitter against Minnesota. Iannetta played one inning in the next three games, as a defensive replacement, but returned to the lineup Sunday and played three straight games before sitting out Wednesday night's game against the Twins, when the wrist worsened.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Washington has long coveted Peter Bourjos , but the Angels, despite a FoxSports.com report that they've had "preliminary discussions" with the Nationals about a deal, do not seem eager to trade the speedy center fielder. "We constantly field calls about players, but we are not actively shopping Peter Bourjos or looking for a fit for him," Angels General Manager Jerry Dipoto said. "We believe he's an asset to us. " The Angels are not quite sure what to do with that asset.

Healthcare without insurance is like construction without power tools. It can be done, but it will take longer and require a lot more effort. And at times you'll feel like you're hammering your thumb. "Preventive care is one of the most difficult areas," said John Kim, head of the nonprofit Healthy City project, which has amassed data on medical and social resources in the Los Angeles area. "By the time you get care for the condition you're trying to prevent, you might already have it."

Survival rates for lung transplant patients are soaring as surgeons adopt techniques developed during the last decade by a group of doctors in St. Louis. Surgeon Joel D. Cooper and his colleagues at Washington University reported last week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. that single-lung recipients had a 90% survival rate using the procedure. The survival rate was 82% for those who received two lungs.

As an athlete, an Olympic swimmer with goals different from, say, someone who earns a living as a businessman or artist or construction worker, Eric Shanteau made decisions that might raise an eyebrow. In 2008, less than a week before the U.S. Olympic trials, Shanteau learned he had testicular cancer. Surgery was recommended. Immediately if possible. Shanteau chose to wait. He made the U.S. team and competed at the Beijing Olympics, where his father was able to watch and cheer for his son. Richard Shanteau had lung cancer in 2008, a disease that would kill him in 2010.

It's a Friday afternoon and the movie "Moneyball" is playing in a medical clinic waiting room at 9001 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. No one is there to watch it, just rows of vacant chairs. Perhaps it's just an off day, but on two other recent visits, no more than a handful of people could be found in the waiting room. It was a much different scene two years ago, when a visitor to the Beverly Hills clinic found the waiting room packed, every seat filled and patients spilling out into an overflow area.