This special report from Zach Wise, a MedPageToday contributing photographer, presents the sights and sounds of New Orleans medicine a year after Hurricane Katrina.

NEW ORLEANS -- A year after Katrina's winds and surging waters destroyed much of this city, New Orleans' health care system is still at sea.

CORTE MADERA, Calif. -- If alcoholics quit drinking early enough and stay sober long enough, the recovery of their mental functions will be nearly complete, a study here suggested.

RICHMOND, Va. -- A single genetic variation may help explain why African American women have a higher risk of delivering premies because of early rupture of the amniotic membrane.

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MONTREAL -- Women who take NSAIDs during the first trimester have a greater risk of having babies with congenital anomalies, particularly cardiac septal defects, researchers here reported.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Scientists reported today a way to extract an embryonic stem cell from a human embryo without damaging it, a finding that may ease the rancorous debate over such research.

HAMILTON, Ontario -- For treatment of acute thromboembolism, fixed-dose weight-adjusted unfractionated heparin delivered subcutaneously may be as effective and safe as low molecular weight heparin, but at a fraction of the cost.

STANFORD, Calif. -- For patients with too many facial actinic keratoses to freeze them all off with liquid nitrogen, a face-to-face comparison of three alternative approaches gave the edge to a chemical peel by a nose.

NEW YORK -- The widely cited estimate that one in three Vietnam veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is too high, but the psychiatric toll on vets was still substantial, a report says.

LOS ANGELES -- For some breast cancer patients, a PET scan imaging strategy may allow surgeons to bypass sentinel lymph node or needle biopsies.

NANTES, France --The seventh trial of adjuvant Navelbine (vinorelbine)-Platinol (cisplatin) tips the balance toward improved survival in patients with stage IB to IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

SIENA, Italy -- For soothing a child's pain when blood is drawn, TV cartoons are a better analgesic than a mother's touch, found investigators here.

SEATTLE -- If a patient isn't likely to learn that a clinician made a serious medical error, many physicians and surgeons would remain tight-lipped about the blunder, according to a survey here.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Even among Americans who are comfortably in the middle class, relatively modest differences in income can have a significant impact on health, a study here suggested.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand -- For preterm babies born at 30 weeks or earlier, MRI can help foretell future developmental deficits better than standard ultrasonography, according to researchers here.

Melanoma accounts for about 3% of all cancers in the United States and for approximately 1% of all cancer deaths. The incidence of melanoma is increasing by 4% to 8% per year--the fastest growing incidence of any type of cancer.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the second most common type of skin cancer, most often occurs on the sun-exposed skin of elderly men and women. Marjolin ulcers are SCCs that result from exposure to radiation and can arise in areas of chronic injury, typically on the extremities.

BOSTON -- Serious side effects and the cost of chemotherapy for younger breast cancer patients are greater than previously estimated, researchers reported.

PITTSBURGH -- Autism may be a brain-wide phenomenon caused by poor connections among the brain's parts rather than by defects in one or two areas, according to investigators here.