Tuberculosis: a great masquerader

Central nervous system tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the most severe form of tuberculosis, accounting for 1% of all TB cases. Intracranial tuberculosis can present as Tuberculous meningitis, Tuberculous encephalopathy, Tuberculous vasculitis, CNS tuberculomas and Tuberculous brain abscess. Here authors present a case of a 10-year-old girl who presented with insidious onset of early morning vomiting, excessive sleepiness with classical neuroimaging findings of intracranial tuberculosis. Authors emphasise that intracranial tuberculoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of any intracranial space-occupying lesion with or without pulmonary involvement.

Orbital cellulitis: early intervention saves vision

Orbital cellulitis describes an infection involving the soft tissues posterior to the orbital septum including the fat and muscle within the bony orbit. This condition is associated with severe sight and life-threatening complications. Distinguishing it from preseptal cellulitis is difficult, but important. Acute sinusitis is the commonest predisposing factor. Clinical findings alone are not specific enough to distinguish between preseptal and post septal orbital cellulitis. Early diagnosis using CT orbit is important to rule out complications such as orbital cellulitis, subperiosteal abscess. The most common location of subperiosteal abscess is the medial wall of the orbit. Transnasal endoscopic drainage of the abscess is a functional and minimally invasive technique and is the treatment of choice at present. Early diagnosis and intervention are mandatory to prevent the visual loss and life-threatening complication.Here, the authors describe a 2 months old infant with orbital cellulitis and medial subperiosteal abscess and treated with transnasal endoscopic drainage of the subperiosteal abscess.

Analysis of medication errors in medicine ward of medical college teaching hospital, Mandya

Background: Medication errors are one of the most common types of medical error that is seen in hospitalised patients. Since medication error is one of the growing concerns of healthcare issue and have implications on patient safety, the purpose of this study was to identify medication error and in turn would help to create awareness among healthcare professionals and provide safety to the patients.Methods: Study was initiated after obtaining approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. The study was done for a period of 1 year between June 2016 and May 2017. Clinical data and data regarding the medication that was prescribed, transcribed, dispensed, administered was collected and was analysed for various types of medication errors during the different stages of medication use process.Results: A total of 351 subjects were recruited in the study for assessing medication error. About 2,283 drugs were prescribed among 351 patients. Maximum number of drugs was administered through parenteral route (50.3%). Medication error was most common during the prescribing stage (51.4%) followed by transcribing stage (39.1%), administration stage (6.9%), and dispensing stage (2.6%). On an average 6 drugs were prescribed per patient. Total of about 5411 errors have occurred out of which 98.8% of errors were preventable, 1.2% of errors were non-preventable. Cardiovascular system (21.9%) and endocrine and renal system (21.9%) was commonly affected due to the medication errors.Conclusions: Medication errors are one of the commonest problems of the healthcare system should be identified and documented and their causes should be studied in order to develop systems that minimize the recurrence.