Inventory control: Its principles and application

Availability of good quality stock, in right quantity, at right place and time and at right cost is the essence of inventory control, which in turn is mandatory for smooth functioning and service delivery of any health care facility. Various techniques are available for inventory control, based on cost, criticality and other factors for e.g., ABC analysis, VED analysis, ABC-VED matrix, FSN analysis, SDE analysis etc. Each technique has its own strength and weakness in its applicability. Economic considerations are also imperative for logistic management of any health facility, as any cost savings could be spent more gainfully in some other way and thus more lives could be saved, reduced morbidities and overall positive impact. Future healthcare managers will have to utilize scientific methods of inventory management and the role of an efficient hospital logistics system cannot be ignored anymore. Inventory control is an important component of hospital management. It provides significant improvement in patient care, customer relationships and optimal use of resources. The objective of this paper is to present an up-to-date review of inventory control and critically appraise its various techniques, various costs associated with it and methods of indenting stock. This review will benefit post-graduate students and public health workers in understanding the concepts and principle of inventory control and applying the same in their practice.

Variation between CT scan findings and histological diagnosis of intracranial glioma.

A total of 45 cases were studied to elucidate the variation between CT scan findings and histological diagnosis of intracranial glioma. They were operated and histopathological examination of all cases was studied. The mean age of the patients were 35+/-2.37 years and ranged from 01 to 65 years. The highest incidence of glioma was found in age group between 40-50 years. The incidence of glioma was more in male 36(80%) in comparison to female 9(20%). The main presenting complaints were headache in 42(93.3%), vomiting in 34(75%), limb weakness in 28(62.2%) and blurring of vision were in 26(57.8%) patients. Other symptoms were convulsion in 29(64.4%) patients and altered consciousness 24(53.3%) patients. By CT scan, diagnosis was made as informed gliomas in all cases. Histopathological examination showed 41(91.1%) cases were gliomas and 3(6.7%) were meningiomas and 1(2.2%) was brain abscess. So there were little variations between CT scan findings and histopathological diagnosis.

Endodermal sinus tumour of stomach--a case report.

This is a case report of an endodermal sinus tumour arising in the stomach of a 1 1/2 years male child. The tumour occupied full thickness of fundus and part of the body of the stomach. H&E sections of the tumour tissue showed endodermal sinus tumour with predominantly reticular and endodermal sinus patterns. Elevated level of alpha-fetoprotien was detected in the serum of the patient and within the tumour tissue by immunohistochemical technique.

A clinical review of large cerebello pontile angle tumors.

The study was designed as retro-prospective and the study period was 3.5 years. A total of 66 (42 prospective and 24 retrospective) consecutive patients were included in the study. The commonest tumor in CPA is the Schwannoma (76%) followed by Meningioma (13.3%) and Epidermoid (4.44%). Unusual forms are Ependymoma and Hemangiopericytoma. Amongst the troublesome clinical features headache, hearing loss, vertigo and imbalance, vomiting and tinnitus were more important besides visual failure and features of lower cranial nerve involvement. The objective of the study is to "Review the Large Cerebello Pontile Angle tumors clinically". In this study 66 large CPA tumors were included and analyzed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was implied for the test of significance. On the whole, n=66 Schwannoma represents 76.70% and Meningioma 15.38%. Of these there are 45 cases with histological verification. The most common presenting (average duration is 1.3 years) symptoms were Headache (94.54%) and Hearing loss of varying grade (85.45%). Vertigo or imbalance was present in 67.27% cases. Vomiting was found in 54.54% of the times and difficulties in deglutition or voice change were complained of in 29.09% cases. Tinnitus was found only in 27.27% cases and it was the complaint mostly in lower diameter tumors. By maximum diameter, there were 24 cases measuring 3-4 cm, 15 more than 4 cm and only one case <3 cm sized tumors. Volume-wise tumors with volume <10 cc were 5 cases, 10-20 cc were 10, 20-30 cc were 13, 30-40 cc were 6 and >40 cc were 6. Similarly tumor volume and posterior fossa volume ratio was as follows: <10% were 6 cases, 10-20% were 15 cases, 20-30% were 7 cases and >30% were 6 cases. Amongst the schwannomas, the consistency of the tumor has been shown to be important factor for LCN involvement. The softer variety involved LCN more often than the harder (p<0.05). The involvement of the different groups of lower cranial nerve ranged from 7% to 92%.