Anthropometric Basis of Vertical Jump Performance: A Study in Young Indian National Players.

INTRODUCTION: Vertical Jump (VJ) is a good measure of athletic performance and occupational activities. Earlier studies reported conflicting results on anthropometric influence. AIM: To evaluate the relationship between anthropometric characteristics and VJ in national level hockey and cycling players. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty four (32 males) national level hockey and cycling players of 11-21 years were the volunteers. Following standard protocols, these variables were measured: VJ, Weight (WT), Height (HT), Trochanterion-Height (TH), Sum of Skinfold Thickness (SSF), Lengths [Acromiale-Stylion (AS) and Midstylion-Dactylion (SD)], Breadths [Biacromial (AB), Biiliocristal (IB), Biepicondylar Humerus (HB) and Biepicondylar Femur (FB)], Girths [Relaxed Arm (AG), Mid Thigh (TG) and Calf (CG)], Lower Back and Hamstring Flexibility (SR), Grip [Left Hand Grip (LHG) and Right Hand Grip (RHG)] and Back Strength (BS). International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK) procedures were followed for anthropometric variables measurement. Unpaired-'t'-test was used for comparison between genders. Pearson's correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to evaluate correlates and predictors of VJ respectively. RESULTS: Males had significantly higher VJ, HT, SD, AB and BS; but lower SSF, AS and TG. VJ correlated positively with age, WT, HT, SD, TH, girths, SR and strength among males; but only with WT and LHG among females. After controlling gender, TH and LHG predicted VJ significantly with 69% of total variance. HT, SSF and BS; and LHG were the significant predictors among males and females respectively. CONCLUSION: Anthropometric and physiological variables like TH, grip, HT, skinfold and BS had major influence on VJ. The result might help in training-monitoring and player's selection.

An innovative device for creating tissue plane cleavage by hydro-dissection based on lever and ergonomic principle.

In the Third world countries, the occupational health of a Reconstructive Surgeon attracts due attention from the applied physiology fraternity, where the massive amount of surgical workload causes chronic fatigue and repeated stress and injury. The knowledge of human physiology and the science of ergonomics analyze these challenges and formulate guidelines for creating a work environment that is safe and comfortable for its operators. Presented here is an innovative, cost effective, sterilizable, manually controlled hydrodissection instrument for surgery. This easy to make Syringe Pressure Gun (SPG), has revolutionized the face of cleft palate surgery reducing the surgical time to 50% and the palatal fistula rate from 3% to Zero percent. The effects were studied on patients and the operating surgeon both. The experimental group comprising of 1500 cleft palate patients in whom the gun was used during surgery as compared to 500 controls showed statistically highly significant results in terms of reduction in average bleeding in millilitres (P<0.05), average operating time in minutes (P<0.001), palatal fistula formation (P<0.005) and reduction in surgical complications like flap necrosis. The results in the operating surgeon (self control) on using the instrument, showed highly statistically significant fall in the muscle strain induced by tedious surgical manoeuvres, as studied by EMG (P<0.005), subjective hand grip pain and tiredness on a scale of 0-10, high convenience in flap dissection and therefore work performance improved in spite of the high volume of surgery. This ergonomic innovation will provide clues for future inventions based on physiological principles for improving the occupational health of the doctors and outcome of the patients.

A clinical and demographic profile of the cleft lip and palate in Sub-Himalayan India: A hospital-based study.

OBJECTIVES: To study the cleft lip and cleft palate in the poverty stricken Sub-Himalayan Garhwal region of India, being a commonly seen congenital abnormality and scarcity of studies about the demography of cleft in this region. DESIGN: A prospective cohort observational case series was performed on 4657 cleft patients at a Tertiary care Hospital in Dehradun, India, over a period of 5 years. OUTCOME MEASURES: The authors investigated the differences between age and sex with cleft status and family history of clefts, birth order, religion, socioeconomic status, parent literacy, source of information for treatment, haematological investigations showing the status of infection and coagulation in such children and satisfaction after treatment. RESULTS: Seventy-two percent parents of cleft lip patients were illiterate, and only 8% were graduates, the majority of patients were from the low socioeconomic class. The siblings of 1.1% of the cleft patients had similar deformity. Anemia was seen in 83.16% cases which was commonly microcytic hypochromic type and eosinophilia was seen in 25.50% of cases. In the coagulation profile, International Nationalized Ratio was found to be raised in 52.12%. Almost 95% of the families were fully satisfied by the treatment and results. CONCLUSION: This study will provide baseline information on the status of these less privileged cleft patients in this mountainous region for future reference to health workers.

Intra and postoperative outcome of adding clonidine to bupivacaine in infraorbital nerve block for young children undergoing cleft lip surgery.

UNLABELLED: AIMS AND CONTEXT: To evaluate the efficacy of adding clonidine to bupivacaine in bilateral infraorbital nerve block for hemodynamic changes, requirement of opioids, volatile agent, and muscle relaxants intraoperatively and relief of pain postoperatively SETTING AND DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, double-blind study. METHODS: Fifty pediatric patients aged less than 24 months undergoing elective cleft lip repair were randomly allocated to two groups of 25 each. After tracheal intubation, group A received bilateral infraorbital nerve block with 1 ml solution of clonidine (1 µg/kg) and bupivacaine 0.25%, and group B received 1 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine. Hemodynamic parameters, intraoperative requirement of volatile anesthetic agent, muscle relaxant, and analgesic were recorded. Pain was assessed postoperatively using the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability scale till the first rescue drug was given. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Two sample unpaired t-test and the correlation r test. RESULTS: The duration of analgesia from the time of administration of block in group A was 667.72 ± 210.74 min compared to 558.48 ± 150.28 min in group B (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Addition of clonidine as an adjunct to local anesthetic significantly decreased the requirement of other anesthetic drugs and significantly prolonged the duration of postoperative analgesia without any adverse effects.

Effect of '61-points relaxation technique' on stress parameters in premenstrual syndrome.

Premenstrual Syndrome is a psychoneuroendocrine stress related disorder and more than 300 treatment modalities for PMS show that the existing remedies have not provided satisfactory help to relieve PMS. 61-points relaxation exercise (61-PR), a relatively less known hatha yoga technique, is a successful means of stress relaxation and is expected to relieve PMS as well. The present study was conducted on 50 clinically healthy women volunteers who were in their reproductive age group and in their premenstrual period, from which a control group (n = 20) and a PMS group (n = 30) based on the symptoms were identified. In both groups basal heart rate (HR/min), systolic (SBP; mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; mmHg), electromyogram (EMG; mV), electrodermal galvanic activity (EDG; microv), respiratory rate (RR/min) and peripheral temperature (T; degrees F) were recorded and the subjects were taken through a guided 61-PR. The symptoms and parameters were re-recorded after the 61-PR. In control group, the basal HR was 82.06 +/- 8.07, SBP 111.95 +/- 8.23, DBP 76.8 +/- 6.42, EMG 4.08 +/- 2.99, EDG 9.77 +/- 3.29, RR 15.60 +/- 3.77 and T was 97.86 +/- 0.63. After 10 minutes of 61-PR, HR (77.27 +/-10.85, P < 0.05), SBP (107.35 +/- 7.41, P < 0.05), DBP (75.25 +/-7.57, P < 0.05), EMG (2.07 +/- 1.90, P < 0.05), EDG (8.06 +/- 2.87, P < 0.05), RR (16.00 +/- 4.12, P < 0.05) fell significantly and T (97.97 +/- 0.64, P > 0.05) rose significantly. In the PMS group, the basal HR was 90.61 +/- 8.46, SBP 122.5 +/- 11.52, DBP 83.53 +/- 8.26, EMG 5.79 +/-2.75, EDG 13.14 +/- 6.54, RR 19.13 +/- 3.76 and T was 93.43 -/+ 5.29. After 10 minutes of 61-PR, HR (75.58 +/- 10.11, P < 0.0001), SBP (114.53 +/- 9.70, p < 0.0001), DBP (77.46 +/- 8.68, P < 0.0001), EMG (2.56 +/- 1.77, P < 0.0001), EDG (10.64 +/- 5.72, P < 0.0001), and RR (16.13 +/- 3.76, P < 0.0001) declined to a much greater extent and T (93.49 +/- 5.28, P < 0.0001) rose more significantly. These results suggest a reduction in sympathetic activity by 61-PR, also the high basal sympathetic tone present in subjects of PMS group due to stress is considerably reduced by relaxation. 61-PR is effective in providing relief from PMS and may be a useful adjuvant to medical therapy of PMS and other stress disorders.

Effect of 1 week '61-points relaxation training' on cold pressor test induced stress in premenstrual syndrome.

The present study was conducted on 50 clinically healthy women volunteers who were in their reproductive age group and in their premenstrual period. Thirty women having premenstrual syndrome (PMS) were compared with 20 control women to evaluate 1 week training of 61-points relaxation (61-PR) yogic exercise. In both the groups cold pressor test (CPT) was performed; and systolic blood pressure (SBP; mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (DBP; mmHg) and heart rate (HR/min) were measured. Basal SBP, DBP and HR of women with PMS was significantly higher than the control subjects with P value 1.2E-05, 0.000583 and 0.005707 respectively, suggesting the presence of stress in women with PMS. Immediately after CPT, the said parameters were statistically significantly more raised in PMS group than control group (P = 6.14E-05, 2.78E-06, 0.003799) respectively. Following 1 week of 61-PR training, the control group showed a significant decline in SBP, DBP & HR (P = 0.00769384, 0.00852894, 0.62316217) respectively. However, the PMS group showed a statistically highly significant reduction in SBP, DBP & HR (P = 2.55E-07, 4.35E-07 and 6.4904E-06) respectively immediately after CPT. These results suggest a reduction in sympathetic activity by 61-PR training and it can be used as an effective relaxation tool during premenstrual stress.

Omental cyst--a rare entity.

A case of omental cyst in a young girl who presented with distension and a lump in abdomen and having difficulty in micturition is reported. Pre-operative diagnosis was achieved by ultrasonography. An exploratory laparotomy with excision of cyst was done and histopathologic examination of the specimen confirmed the diagnosis. The postoperative course was uneventful. The aetiopathogenesis, special features of the disease and review of literature is discussed.

Unusual frontal bone injury.

A 12-year old girl presented 6 months after a forehead injury due to fall from height. She had a deformed forehead with a rectangular bone defect and a rectangular bicortical bone fragment impacted into the lower edge of the defect. There was no obvious skin or dural injury. The deformed forehead was exposed through a bi-coronal scalp flap. The bone fragment was reposited back into the defect. The forehead of the patient healed with a smooth contour.