Avascular necrosis of the femoral head in HIV positive patients-an assessment of risk factors and early response to surgical treatment.

26 consecutive patients (37 hips) with avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head treated surgically at our institution from 1999 to 2008 were reviewed. The aims of the study were to evaluate the risk factors associated with AVN in HIV positive and HIV negative individuals, and assess early response to total hip replacement (THR) surgery in HIV positive and negative patients. There were 15 male and 11 female patients in total. The mean age for all patients was 47.1± 8.0 years (range, 33 to 66 years). 12 patients were HIV positive, 11 patients were HIV negative and 3 patients had unknown HIV status. Excessive alcohol intake was the most common risk factor for developing AVN .15 patients (58%) had more than one risk factor for AVN and only 2/12 (17%) HIV positive patients had no other risk factor apart from HIV infection. There were no early postoperative complications in 34 arthroplasties in both HIV positive and negative patients. The aetiology of AVN seems often to be multifactorial, even in the presence of HIV infection. Early response to arthroplasty surgery in AVN of the femoral head is equally good irrespective of the HIV serostatus of the patients.

Assessing quality of existing data sources on road traffic injuries (RTIs) and their utility in informing injury prevention in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed whether the quality of the available road traffic injury (RTI) data was sufficient for determining the burden of RTIs in the Western Cape Province and for implementing and monitoring road safety interventions. METHODOLOGY: Underreporting was assessed by comparing data reported by the South African Police Services (SAPS) in 2008 with data from 18 provincial mortuaries. Completeness of the driver death subset of all RTIs was assessed using the capture-recapture method. RESULTS: The mortuary and police data sets comprised 1696 and 860 fatalities respectively for the year 2008. The corresponding provincial road traffic mortality rates were as follows: 32.2 deaths/100,000 population per year (95% confidence interval [CI]: 30.7-33.8) and 16.3 deaths/100,000 population per year (95% CI: 15.3-17.5). The police data set contained 820,960 crashes, involving 196,889 persons, indicating substantial duplication of crash events. There were varying proportions of missing data for demographic and other identifying variables, with age missing in nearly half of the cases in the police data set. The estimated total number of driver deaths/year was 588.6 (95% CI: 544.4-632.8), yielding estimated completeness of the mortuary and police data sets of 57.6 and 46.4 percent separately and 77.3 percent combined. CONCLUSION: This study found extensive data quality problems, including missing data, duplication, and significant underreporting of traffic injury deaths in the police data. Not all assumptions underlying the use of capture-recapture method were met in this study; hence, the estimates provided by this analysis should be interpreted with caution. There is a need to address the problems highlighted by this study in order to improve data utility for informing road safety policies. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.

Drivers' risk profile indicates the need for a graduated driving licence in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Current driver mortality estimates do not consider the great differences in exposure across the population, giving a false impression that driver deaths are lowest in the youngest age group. Interventions to reduce risk among the younger age group include graduated driver licensing (GDL) - a three-phase licensing system for novice drivers consisting of a learner's permit, a provisional license, and a full license. OBJECTIVES: We calculated driver fatality rates per 10 000 registered drivers in each age group and assessed the need for stricter licensing conditions for novice and younger drivers. METHODS: Age-specific driver mortality rates were calculated using Western Cape Province 2008 mortuary data. The total number of licensed drivers in each age group served as the denominator. Incidence rate ratios were calculated using the age group of 65 - 79 years as the reference. Chi-square test of trend on incidence rate ratios for the age groups was done. Statistical significance was set as p<0.05. RESULTS: There were 339 driver deaths; mean age was 39.4±13.8 years, and males accounted for 80% of the deaths. Age-specific driver mortality rates were highest in the youngest age group (15 - 19 years). There was a significant progressive decrease (except for the age group 45 - 49 years) in the risk of death from road traffic injuries with increasing age compared with the age group ≥ 65 years (chi2 for trend p<0.0001). CONCLUSION; This study showed a relationship between driver's mortality risk and younger age, and underscores the need for introduction of a GDL programme in South Africa.

The use of tannins in the local treatment of burn wounds - a pilot study.

Twenty patients aged 3 years and above with fresh partial thickness burns of less than 20% total body surface area were randomly assigned to local treatment of the burn wound either with a solution containing tannins (tannin group), or one of the other commonly used topical agents, such as honey and ghee, silver sulfadiazine, etc (the other group). The effects on serum transaminase and alkaline phosphatase, the incidence and type of wound infection, the quality of the eschar, the formation of scar tissue, adverse effects, the alleviation of pain and possible adverse reactions were studied in both treatment groups. Surprisingly initial assessment of the burn wound depth proved more difficult than anticipated even in the hands of the more experienced health worker. Liver function tests were elevated in both the tannin (6 patients) and the other group (7 patients). Bacterial colonization of the wounds was equally distributed in both groups, although Staphylococcus aureus was found more often in the other group (9 versus 1). The quality of the eschar was better in the tannin group (6 patients had a supple eschar versus 3 in the other group). The most important observations were that no adverse reactions were encountered and that in the tannin group only one patient developed a hypertrophic scar compared to 5 patients in the other group. It proved difficult to quantify alleviation of pain especially in the children.