Res Medica (E-Journal)
Not a member yet
481 research outputs found
Sort by
Probing Fistulae in the G.I. Tract
Get PDFFistulae are commonly encountered in general surgery. A fistula is an abnormal connection between two epithelial surfaces (figure 1). It can connect two hollow viscera together, or can connect a hollow viscus to the skin. In this way they can either be visceral and internal, or cutaneous and external. The connection between the surfaces is usually lined with granulation tissue. A sinus is a granulating track from a source of infection to the surface. Sinuses can develop into fistulae if inadequately treated.
Experiences and Observations from a Rural Hosiptal in Orange Free State, South Africa
Get PDFDuring the summer of 2004, I travelled to South Africa to volunteer in Boitumelong Special Needs School. The school is located in the small township of Thaba ‘Nchu which is near Bloemfontein in the Free State. It was not long before I introduced myself to the doctors practicing in the local hospital and eagerly asked if I could attend some of the clinics. The health care system in South Africa has a much more developed private sector than the UK. In every major city both a public and private hospital can be found. Typically, only white South Africans have health insurance and comprise the patient population of the private health care institutions. The public hospitals serve the black populace who cannot afford to pay for their medical treatment. Many of the small towns and townships in South Africa are populated by a majority of blacks and so are served by Government funded hospitals. Such hospitals often face staff, equipment and medication shortages and frequently become the primary choices of newly qualified medical students who are keen to spend their first year practicing under a great deal of pressure and in a variety of different medical specialties simultaneously. The doctors I spoke with found that they developed a greater depth and quality of medical knowledge and understanding of tertiary health care than their counterparts who applied to larger public and private hospitals.
Everything You Would Want to Know About Contracting a Tropical Disease
Get PDFWhy travel? To broaden the mind. Undoubtedly travel also broadens your exposure to tropical diseases. Given the current United Kingdom climate you will have to travel to get a tropical disease. This is easy given sufficient funds. You can be anywhere in the world within 36 hours. A t any one time no less than about 300,000 people are airborne. The average intercontinental jet is airborne for about 17 hours out of 24. And this is a longer proportion of life than for many birds
The National Health Service - The Appointed Day; Before and After
Get PDFI wonder whether being in my eighties is an excuse or a recommendation for offering an article to Res Medica; however, it is said that the recall of memory is easier for earlier than for later years. My comments may be colloquial and informal rather than statistical and academic and of necessity they will be of a biographical flavour. My experience of Medicine, pre and post NHS, falls between four dates; Qualification 1944, Consultant Appointment 1963, Retirement 1984 and today 2005. The Appointed Day for the inauguration of the National Health Service in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was the 5th July, 1948
A Short Circular History of Vitamin D from its Discovery to its Effects
Get PDFThe discovery of vitamin D.It was as early as the mid-1600s that Whistler (1) and Glisson (2)independently published scientific descriptions (in Latin!) of rickets, caused, we now know, by a vitamin D deficiency. However neither treatise recognised the crucial role of diet or exposure to sunlight on the prevention of this disease. Around 200 years later, in 1840, a Polish physician called Sniadecki realised that cases of rickets occurred in children living in the industrial centre of Warsaw but did not occur in children living in the country outside Warsaw. He surmised that lack of exposure to sunlight in the narrow, crowded streets of the city where there was considerable pollution due to the burning of coal and wood, caused the disease. Such a view was poorly received at the time as it seemed inconceivable that the sun could have any useful benefit on the skeleton. The prevalence of rickets increased as industrial processes and labour expanded and, by the end of the nineteenth century, this bone disorder was estimated to affect more than 90% of children living in such urban polluted environments in Europe. Similarly, as Boston and New York City grew in the late 1800s, so did the number of cases until, in 1900, more than 80% of children in Boston were reported to suffer from rickets
Who needs a gut anyway?
Get PDFThis is an up-to-date review on Chronic Intestinal Failure (CIF) and Parenteral Nutrition (PN) as a management strategy for CIF.CIF and long-term PN are important subjects, but are superficially covered in undergraduate curricula due to the perception that they are relatively specialist areas. PN, as well as being a form of acute nutritional support, is used as a life-sustaining measure for patients with CIF due to conditions such as bowel ischaemia and Crohn’s disease. Currently, around 500 patients receive long-term PN in the UK and the numbers are expected to rise with the aging population1. It is a costly service, requiring a multidisciplinary team effort, along with high frequency patient-healthcare interaction.This article aims to discuss the current evidence on the causes, management and prognosis of CIF, with a particular focus on PN as a form of nutritional management. While PN seems to improve the prognosis of patients with CIF from a medical point of view, we will also explore how it affects other aspects of a patient’s life, such as their social life and mental health.
The Rheumatoid Factor
Get PDFThe observation that certain human sera had the property of agglutinating sheep erythrocytes previously sensitized with specific antibody has been made sporadically since the turn of the century. Only in 1940, however, was thisproperty shown to belong, in the main, to sera from patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.Because of the difficulties of communication in war-time, Waaler’s work remained largely unknown. In 1948, Rose and his colleagues (21) in New York, unaware of Waaler’s observations, “rediscovered” the phenomenon and described a diagnostic test, similar in principle to Waaler’s. The observations of Waaler and of Rose and his colleagues have now been amply confirmed and the Rose Waaler test, or more usually one of the numerous modifications thereof, is used routinely as a diagnostic aid in rheumatoid arthritis
Book Reviews
Get PDFNotes On Medical Virology by Morag C. Tinbury. Published by E. & S. Livingstone Ltd., E d in burgh 1967.Racial And Geographical Factors In Tumour Incidence (University of Edinburgh Press— Pfizer Medical). Monograph No. 2. Edited by A. A. Shivas. 63s.Psychiatric Disorders Of Obstetrics by A. A. Baker.Blackwell ScientificPublications. 27s 6d.A Synopsis of Children\u27s Diseases (4th Edition) by Rendle- Short & Gray. John Wright & Sons Ltd.. Bristol, 52s 6d.Biochemical Values In Clinical Medicine by RobertEastham. John Wright & Sons Ltd., Bristol. 15s.Roxburgh’s Common Skin Diseases (13th Edition) by Peter Borrie. H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd. £2 10s.A New Look At Industrial Medicine by R. L. Luffingham. Pitman Medical 12s 6d.Cervical Spondylosis edited by Lord Brain & Marcia Wilkinson. William Heinemann Ltd. 55s.Diseases Of The Nose, Throat And Ear (8th Ed.) by Hall & Coleman. Livingstone 30s.The Vesico-Vaginal Fistula by J. Chassar Moir. Bailliere Tindall & Cassell Ltd. 60s