ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Uncertainty exists in the medical literature about recommendations for return to work or driving after breast reduction surgery. METHODS: A survey was sent to 138 plastic surgeons in the United Kingdom enquiring about their recommended timing of return to work or driving a car depending of level of activity. Data was evaluated with univariate ANOVA test and a p<0.05 significance level. RESULTS: Out of 73 surgeons who responded, 13% did not give any specific advice regards to return to work and 30% for return to driving. The remainder suggested to return to work and driving after about 19 days each. CONCLUSIONS: Based on this consensus of opinion of plastic surgeons with an interest in breast surgery it appears reasonable to suggest a recovery period of approximately 3 weeks subject to individual variations. Further evidence is needed to comment on the interaction of wound healing and pain and return to driving and work.
Subject(s)
Automobile Driving , Breast/surgery , Mammaplasty , Work , Female , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Physicians , Postoperative Period , Practice Patterns, Physicians' , Surveys and Questionnaires , Time FactorsABSTRACT
It has been suggested in the literature that inflation ports of breast tissue expanders can be a major source of leakage. An experimental study with a 23G and subsequently with a 21G injection needle into the port membrane of three inflation ports was performed. After 100 perforations with each needle per port no leakage was detected and no material from the membrane could be identified in the needle lumens. The authors conclude that multiple needle perforations into the injection port are unlikely to be the cause for deflation of breast tissue expanders due to leakage.
Subject(s)
Breast Implants , Tissue Expansion Devices , Equipment Failure , Extravasation of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Materials , Female , Humans , Materials Testing/methods , NeedlesABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess the use of medical honey on healing times and complications in patients with venous leg ulcers after split-skin grafting. METHOD: Healing time and morbidity were evaluated in six patients with chronic venous leg ulcers who underwent split-skin grafting followed by the application of medical honey at the vascular unit of University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool. RESULTS: Mean healing time was 22 days. There were no complications. CONCLUSION: The use of medical honey in patients who have received split-skin grafts for chronic venous leg ulcers appears to give a similar healing time to that seen without the application of honey. There were no major complications. Larger prospective randomised controlled trials are needed to confirm the findings.
Subject(s)
Honey , Leg Ulcer/therapy , Postoperative Care/methods , Skin Care/methods , Skin Transplantation , Adult , Aged , Bandages , Chronic Disease , Clinical Nursing Research , Female , Humans , Leg Ulcer/etiology , Male , Middle Aged , Morbidity , Postoperative Care/nursing , Skin Care/nursing , Time Factors , Treatment Outcome , Wound HealingABSTRACT
Under continuous observation of several months, 42 patients from the eastern province of Sierra Leone, Liberia (Lofa County), and neighbouring Guinea were identified as Lassa fever cases by indirect immunofluorescent antibody technique, indicating that the disease is endemic in these areas. The clinical course varied from mild disease to severe illness with haemorrhagic disorders. The fatality rate was 14%. The occurrence of only two possible secondary cases suggests that person-to-person spread of the disease is unimportant epidemiologically. There was a wide range of patients' ages, tribes, and occupations, including a 2 months old baby and a white US citizen. Clinical, laboratory, and histopathological investigations demonstrated the panorganotropism of Lassa virus. Haematological tests in few selected haemorrhagic cases with Lassa fever did not support coagulation disorders or thrombocytopenia as causing the bleeding tendency. The histopathologic changes bear resemblance to those observed in Argentinian and Bolivian haemorrhagic fever, both being caused by viruses of the Arena group. However, Lassa virus hepatitis may be differentiated from liver lesions occurring in yellow fever, Marburg virus disease, and Ebola (Maridi) haemorrhagic fever.
Subject(s)
Lassa Fever/complications , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Child, Preschool , Hematologic Tests , Hemorrhage/etiology , Humans , Infant , Kidney/pathology , Lassa Fever/epidemiology , Lassa Fever/pathology , Liberia , Liver/pathology , Middle Aged , Sierra LeoneABSTRACT
A new viral disease (Maridi haemorrhagic fever) occurred in the South Sudan in 1976. It was obviously identical with an epidemic which occurred at the same time in Zaire. The virus is morpologically closely similar to the Marburg virus. During the Maridi epemic 124 of 238 patients died (52%). Characteristic symptoms were fever and headache (100%), diarrhoea (83%), retrosternal pain (82%), vomiting (68%), haemorrhages (62%), morbilliform or vesicular rash (52%). At post-mortem there were changes in liver, kidney, myocardium and lungs, similar to those in the Marburg virus disease, as were those observed in bone marrow and peripheral blood. Despite these analagous findings, the clinical course and results of immunofluorescence indicate that it is a new disease. The epidemic ended after suitable isolation measures had been taken. There was no specific treatment but in some cases convalescent plasma and interferon were tried. The disease is transmitted among humans by direct contact or by contact with blood or excreta of patients. No animal reservoir has been found. It is possible for this disease to be imported also into countries with a modorate climate.
Subject(s)
Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome/diagnosis , Virus Diseases/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Autopsy , Child , Child, Preschool , Diarrhea/diagnosis , Disease Outbreaks , Exanthema/diagnosis , Female , Headache/diagnosis , Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome/microbiology , Humans , Infant , Male , Marburgvirus/isolation & purification , Middle Aged , Sudan , Virus Diseases/microbiology , Vomiting/diagnosisABSTRACT
Histopathological observations in monkeys experimentally infected with African lung flukes are reported. The observations were made on 3 Rhesus monkeys, infected with Paragonimus africanus from West-Cameroon, and on 5 Rhesus monkeys, infected with P. uterobilateralis from Eastern Nigeria. For comparison, the lung of a naturally infected Drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) was included in the study. The following lesions were found: formation of parasite cavernae, intense infiltration of the cavern wall with plasma cells; formation of egg granulomata in the lung tissue with intense plasma cell infiltration; peribronchial and perivascular cellular infiltration, concomitant and consistent pleuritis; reactive cellular hyperplasia of hilar lymph nodes and of spleen. Evidently, in the stages of infection examined so far, the immune response of the host is mainly of the humoral type. Experimental Paragonimus infections in monkeys may serve as a model in studies on human paragonimiasis in Eastern Nigeria and West-Cameroon. Likewise, they may serve in studies on granulomatous inflammation.
