ABSTRACT
Objective: to determine the knowledge of clinicians and their opinion about legalization, obstacles in practicing euthanasia and factors that may compel them to practice euthanasia
Methodology: a questionnaire based descriptive study was conducted at public and private hospitals of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A questionnaire was distributed randomly to 540 doctors of different specialties and general practitioners. Questions were related to their knowledge, views about legalization, factors and obstacles in practicing euthanasia. The questionnaire was collected from the doctors who filled the form and consented to participate in the study
Results: the response rate was 55%, among them 79% were males. Only 61% [185] knew the meaning of euthanasia, whereas 36% [109] knew about its guidelines and 2% [6] had no knowledge of euthanasia. Amongst clinicians who knew about euthanasia, 84% did not and 16% agreed with its legalization. Reasons mentioned for disagreement with its legalization were religion 95%, moral 61%, ethical 44%, emotional 41% and social 37%. Of those clinicians who agreed with its legalization, 90% would and 10% would not practice it on their patients. Out of them 40% would adopt no resuscitation method, 40% would administer lethal drugs and 20% would withhold or withdraw the treatment
Conclusion: majority of responding clinicians were not aware of euthanasia and any related guidelines. They disagreed with the practice as well as legalization of euthanasia
ABSTRACT
To evaluate various types of lung malignancies diagnosed through bronchoscopy, and their presentations. This descriptive study was based in a tertiary care chest facility in Peshawar. Duration of the study was from June 2005 - June 2009. The material was obtained from the bronchoscopy record in the chest clinic. All the patients bronchoscoped from June 2005 - June 2009 were studied for their outcome. This study included 425 patients, 306 [72%] were males and 235 [55.3%] of patients were between 31-60 years age. Ninety two [21.6%] patients were diagnosed with lung cancer; of which 73 [79.5%] patients were males and 19 [20.5%] were females. Sixty five [70.7%] of the 92 patients initially presented with shadow on the Chest radiograph, 9 [9.80%] patients had superior vena caval obstruction, 8 [8.70%] patients presented with lung collapse, 6 [6.52%] with haemoptysis, and 4 [4.35%] patients with hoarseness of voice. Forty three [46.7%] patients were diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, 29 [31.5%] with adenocarcinoma, 17 [18.5%] with small cell type carcinoma and 3 [3.30%] patients had large cell type carcinoma. Fifty four [58.7%] patients of the 92 were smokers or had a history of smoking, Anthracosis was found in 45 [10.6%] patients out of all the 425 patients. Commonest type of lung cancer in this study was squamous cell [46.7%] followed by adenocarcinoma [31.5%] and small cell carcinoma [18.5%]. Squamous cell carcinoma was strongly associated with cigerrete smoking as compared to adenocarcinoma in this study