Perceptions of medical students in preventing medical errors and patient safety

To evaluate under graduate medical students' perceptions on medical errors and patient safety. Descriptive cross sectional study. Army Medical College from Dec 2014 to Jan 2015. The 4x simulation role play patient safety sessions of 15 minutes each took place in the lecture hall conducted on fourth-year medical students selected during a whole-class academic sessions in Dec 2014 and Jan 2015. Participants in these sessions were given clinical scenario after taking the informed written consent. After the role play, students were given the same questionnaire. Responses to each item were added using a like rt scale. Most of the students agreed after the role play sessions that they had a good understanding of common medical errors. Medical students in Army Medical College had knowledge of medical errors as being a barrier between what is thought better and what is being available

Patient safety: a survey of knowledge of general practitioners in Karachi

To study the knowledge of General Practitioners on Patient's Safety. Descriptive cross sectional study. Malir district, Karachi, from Feb 2012 to April 2012. Responses to a closed ended questionnaire by general practitioners [GPs] was recorded using non probability convenient sampling. The variables were derived from aspects of patient safety issues. The questionnaire used 11 potential risk factors to explore GP's views on patient safety. A total of 68 GPs responded out of the total 150 GPs running their private clinics or filter clinics of private hospitals in the Malir district area. The risk factors most frequently judged as a threat to patient safety were a poor doctor-patient relationship, insufficient continuing education on the part of the GP and a patient age based guidelines and patient privacy in the reception/ waiting room were not perceived as risk factors by most of the GPs. GPs in the present study judged a broader range of factors than in previously published research on patient safety in primary care, including a poor doctor-patient relationship, to pose a potential threat to patient safety. Other risk factors such as infection prevention, deviation from guidelines and incident reporting were judged to be less relevant than considered conventionally

Gaint inguinal hernia

Giant inguinal herniae present a major challenge in management. Our patient presented with a very huge irreducible right inguinoscrotal hernia of over fifteen years duration associated with elephantiasis of the scrotal skin. The hernia was electively treated with laparotomy, omental resection and neoscrotal repair The problem of loss of domain within the abdaminal cavity and its complications presented by this patient are discussed

Frequency and risk factor of abdominal wound dehiscence

To find out the frequency of abdominal wound dehiscence [AWD] in a tertiary care hospital and the assessment of associated risk factors. Design: a cross sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out at Nishter Hospital Multan between May 1998 to May 2000. Subjects and This study was carried out on 406 patients who underwent laparotomy for intra peritoneal procedure and complied with inclusion criteria. Demographic features were recorded and any complications documented. Out of a total of 406 patients, 32 showed wound dehiscence giving an over all frequency of 7.8%. The male to female ratio was 2.8:1. The frequency was greater in males than in females. Majority patients suffered from an underlying malignancy. Malignant intestinal obstruction was the leading cause of wound dehiscence. Forty three patients had hypo-albuminemia[serum albumin <35 gm/l] and 09 of them had AWD. Emergency surgery showed a higher frequency of AWD[12.5%], as compared to elective surgery [18/143 and 14/263 respectively]. Wound infection was a major contributor to AWD as out of 406, 76 patients developed infection and then 21 manifested AWD. older age was also associated with greater frequency. The overall mortality of AWD in this study was 28.1%. AWD still continues to be major post operative complication, with a high morbidity and mortality. The significant risk factors in this study were age more than 55 years, male gender, underlying malignancy, wound infection, jaundice, use of steroids, emergency surgery, uraemia and technique of closure