case of castor bean poisoning

Castor beans, sometimes used in traditional therapies, contain ricin one of the most toxic substances known. It may cause an acute and potentially fatal gastroenteritis in addition to neurological and ophthalmological lesions. Poisoning may also lead to delayed visceral damages; however, the latter is quite rare. The toxicity is dose related and depends on the amount of castor beans ingested. There is no specific treatment and symptomatic management to reduce the load of the toxin needs to be initiated quickly and early when a case of poisoning is suspected so that serious complications will be avoided. Increasing the awareness of the population to the dangers of ricin would be a way to avoid the utilisation of castor seeds in traditional therapies. Here we are reporting a case of mild poisoning after ingestion of a single castor bean. The patient, who presented at Nizwa Hospital, Oman, fortunately recovered completely as the ingested dose was quite small

Osteomyelitis of the thoracic cage in patients with sickle cell disorder

Thoracic cage osteomyelitis is an extremely rare manifestation in its pure form in sickle cell disease [SCD]. However rib infarction may be a common occurrence in SCD leading to a vicious cycle of chest pain, hypoventilation atelactasis, hypoxia and acute chest syndrome. Two cases of osteomyelitis, one of ribs and the second of sternum in sickle cell disease patients are reported here. The clinical presentation laboratory and radiological abnormalities as well as the response to therapy and outcome is presented