ABSTRACT
Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common postoperative complication and represents a significant burden in terms of patient morbidity, mortality and cost to health services around the world. Appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis helps in reducing the incidence of SSIs. Appropriate surgical prophylaxis is a multifactorial process that depends on proper case selection, antibiotic selection including dosing and route of administration and duration of therapy.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted over 3 months on 200 operated patients in surgery ward of a tertiary hospital. Patient details like demography, type of surgery performed and antibiotics prescribed pre and post-surgical procedure was collected and analysed using Microsoft excel.Results: Out of 200 patients 32.5% (65) were females and 67.5% (135) were males. Total number of prophylactic antibiotics prescribed were 368. The most commonly prescribed group of antibiotics was cephalosporins (44.29%) followed by metronidazole (26.5%) and ofloxacin (9.48%). Among the cephalosporins the most commonly prescribed was cefuroxime in 82 patients (50.3%) and cefoperazone in 79 patients (48.46%). SSI developed in 3 out of 200 patients (1.5%).Conclusions: There is an urgent requirement to promote rational antibiotic prescribing among surgeons. The need of the hour is developing and implementing national guidelines for surgical prophylaxis by a multidisciplinary group of experts.
ABSTRACT
Background: The aim was to assess the effectiveness of multiple choice versus short answer questions (SAQs) as assessment tools for evaluating performance of 2nd MBBS students. Methods: The study was observational, retrospective study of written pen and paper type assessment that utilized a sample of 100 2nd year medical students. Study consisted of two parts; part I was multiple-choice questions (MCQs) based on endocrine system where four options were given for a question and the single best answer was to be ticked. MCQ was timed at 20 mins for 30 questions with 1 mark each. There was no negative marking. Part II was SAQ on same system where 16 SAQ were given. SAQ was timed at 60 mins for 30 marks questions. After the test students had to reply on a feedback form. Result: There was a strong correlation between the marks scored in two formats of test and there was no statistical difference between the two set of marks. Conclusion: SAQs are as effective as MCQs in assessing the performance of the students in medical pharmacology.
ABSTRACT
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of the whole knee joint occurring due to an interaction between inflammatory, hypoxic, and mechanical pathways. Initial management includes monotherapy with analgesics or anti‑inflammatory agents, eventually switching over to combination therapy with steroids and/or newer drugs. Cardiovascular risks associated with non‑steroidal anti‑inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) limit their long term use. Hence, novel target receptors or pathways, which remain unaffected by conventional therapy and modify disease are being increasingly looked for. Newer drugs such as glucosamine, chondroitin, methylsulfonylmethane, diacerein along with vitamins/minerals are commonly used as adjuncts to NSAIDs or as monotherapy. Because of their novel mechanisms of action and better safety profile they seem to be promising as disease modifying agents in the treatment of OA. Google, PubMed, Cochrane databases and Science Direct search was performed, and relevant articles were identified. This review focuses on the pathological targets which these drugs modify in order to bring about a symptom modifying effect.