Res Medica (E-Journal)
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The History and Evolution of Plastic Surgery
Get PDFPlastic surgery is a branch coming from the main trunk of medicine and surgery and the origins are in antiquity.Of all branches of medical science plastic surgery is probably the most frequently misunderstood. The word ‘plastic’ is not modern. Today it is used in the main for products of a great modern industry. When one refers to plastic surgery, most people think of cosmetic surgery and unfortunately in some quarters plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery are virtually synonymous. This is far from the case. Again, some persons in ignorance believe that in plastic surgery plastic materials, are used to close wounds and to make scars invisible
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Get PDFA Review based on a Dissertation read before the Society on Friday. 29th November, 1964.Not even the most enthusiastic student of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) would claim that it is a common disease, but it is an interesting one not only because it can mimic almost every other known disease, but also because it combines many of the features of commoner but equally ill-understood connective tissue disorders. Among these are rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis. Another impetus to research is the nature of the victims— most of these unfortunate people are girls and young women
The Chocolate Coated Pill
Get PDFFrom a dissertation on the side effects of Oral Contraceptives, read before the Society on Friday, 2nd December, 1966The great increase in the world birth rate that is presently taking place, and which increases the population by 165,000 people per day, has been estimated to double the total human population by the turn of the century.The problems set by such a rise in numbers is not confined to the East or to the “underdeveloped” countries of Africa, but is calculated to increase the population of Britain by 50% in those same thirty-odd years
Medical Student Dress Code
Get PDFIntroduction: Currently, medical students are not given specific guidance on how to dress. This allows them to wear what they interpret as appropriate, which may not always be optimal. Many studies have shown that a doctor’s attire can greatly affect the consultation; however, no studies have been carried out investigating patient responses to medical student attire.Methods: A two-phase patient questionnaire was conducted. Phase 1 surveyed 60 patients, who were given questionnaires based on pictures of medical students in various clothing styles: with a white coat, without a white coat but smartly dressed, and without a white coat dressed smart casual. This was followed by a second live phase where 50 patients were seen by medical students dressed with or without white coats and were asked to complete a survey assessing their response to the student and consultation based solely on their dress.Results: Patients favour medical students wearing white coats. In our questionnaire based study (phase 1), white coats scored highest in trust and confidence (p<0.05), cleanliness and professionalism (p<0.005), and they were not more intimidating (p<0.05). In our live study (phase 2), wearing a white coat scored highest in cleanliness and professionalism compared to no white coat (p<0.005), but significance was lost in trust and confidence (p>0.05), and comfort and intimidation (p>0.05). 90% of participants responded that it was important how medical students dressed and 78% would like to be able to distinguish medical students from doctors.Discussion: Medical students’ attire is an important issue for patients. Our study shows that students dressed in white coats score more highly on cleanliness and professionalism than without a white coat.Conclusion: Direction over medical student attire should be given based upon evidence based approaches and patient expectations. Furthermore, the opinions concerning white coats should be further explored and their reinstitution considered
Editorial
Get PDFThe story of Res Medica has been one of success, so far. The Journal was started only two years ago and has prospered enormously. The people responsible for this success are undoubtedly the members of the first Editorial Committee. Our role has been simply to add fuel to the fire which their enthusiasm set alight. Thus, during its second year, the Journal\u27s circulation has doubled. The size has grown considerably, and we are financially stable. It has been our aim to base Res Medica on the Society\u27s public business and as many as possible of our Addresses, Talks, and Dissertations are now included. We hope that future editors will follow this policy.In the present issue we include a most fascinating article by Professor Swann. In those long past lectures to us in our first year, he expressed complicated ideas in a minimum of words. He has a knack of using a short word where others might use a long one, of using one word where others might employ two. Consequently his lectures are stimulating and intelligible even for those whose education has not included any biological study. His article reminds us of this talent and provides us with much to think about. It is easy to see why he was so delighted to obtain that electron microscope
Rockets, Men and Medicine
Get PDFSpace Medicine has at last become an accepted entity in the vast field of medical research after many years of ridicule and scorn. The recent successes of the U .S.S.R. and U .S.A. in launching earth and sun satellites would seem adequate to justify the existence of space medicine. It seems Man\u27s avowed intention to conquer the third dimension, the vertical, which leads to space and as such it is the duty of the medical scientist to make this journey as safe as possible for the would-be space traveller.Space is not a well defined region since it has no accurate topographical boundaries and in the context of this article the best way of defining space is to think in terms of levels of space equivalency, i.e. levels at which various protective functions of the Earth\u27s atmosphere are lost so creating a space-like state for a certain phenomenon at a particular altitude. From the viewpoint of respiratory physiology space begins at a height of 52,500 feet since the effects of explosive decompression assume a constant value at and over this level. In similar terms the atmosphere acts as a filter against cosmic factors and this function of itself provides a variety of space equivalencies ranging from sea level in the case of infra-red rays, to 10-20 miles for cosmic primaries and as high as 75 miles for visible light. Space, therefore, is a concept which of necessity is a variable and its effects may be just as varied
Biological Reserves
Get PDF“Life,” wrote McNair Wilson,“interested John Hunter to the exclusion of everything else, and he studied life as he had begun to see it—namely, as the supreme resistance to the blind forces which surrounded it and impinged upon it . . . Life, on this showing,was self protective.” This “supreme resistance” of life leads in health to longevity, in disease or after injury to survival; and therefore it is of peculiar interest to surgeons. It appears to depend on an urge for continuing life common to all tissues, and easily demonstrated for certain cells in the laboratory by examining the resistance offered by renal and hepatic cells to a sequence of injuries produced by chemicals (for example uranium nitrate and carbon tetrachloride). Tissues differ from one to another in the tenacity with which they cling to life, some giving up before others. This may be of importance in the practice of the future, as the population of this and other countries ages. According to the Government Actuary’s projection, provided the general mortality rate continues to decline and\u27 the fertility rate remains about the same, between 1951 and 1979 the total population of this country may rise by 1% to 52,250,000; the pensionable population may rise by 43% to 9,500,000, while the number of children may fall by about 4% to 10,500,000. Doctors (and incidentally hospital planners) will have to deal with and provide for more aged and ageing tissues and for fewer children; they will also be able to determine whether the tissues of children of the present generation, who are growing to be larger and who are maturing earlier than the children of 25 or 50 years ago, will in fact retain their “desire for life” to ages sufficient to project them into the pensionable groups (males over 65, females over 60), a possibility at present unresolved
Res Medica
Get PDFResearch: From Genesis to Revelation The Inaugural Address of the 223rd Session ofthe Society was given by PROFESSOR JOHN McMICHAEL of the Hammersmith Postgraduate Medical School. Before a large audience he spoke of the conditions under which research is initiated and finally brought to fruition. The general climate of opinion is important and he instanced Padua at the time of the Renaissance. Here Harvey was launched on his career in a University which housed Galileo, Yesalius and Fabricius. By contrast in our own time, Hitler had destroyed more thoroughly than he knew the scientific spirit in Germany. Americain medicine and Russia in the physical sciences were today taking the lead because of abundant support from national funds
Abdominal Pain
Get PDFBased on a Dissertation read before the Royal Medical Society on Friday, 30th January 1959."Every painhas its distinct and frequent signification if we will but carefully search for it; pain the monitor is a starting point for contemplation which should ever be present to the mind of the surgeon in his reference to treatment." With these words, John Hilton advises us to regard the symptom of pain with suspicion. Many causes of pain are of organic origin, but pain of psychological origin also be tokens an alteration in the state of health of the patient