Soccer injuries in childhood.

A prospective study of soccer injuries, involving 287 male youth players, from the ages of 12-15 was conducted in 24 Greek soccer clubs, during the course of one year. A total of 193 players sustained 209 injuries. The incidence of injuries was 4.0 injuries per 1000 h of soccer time per player, and the most common types of injuries were sprains and strains. Surprisingly, it was found that an increase of injury incidences occurred during practice. Fifty-eight injuries required medical assistance. The majority of injuries (80%) were located in the lower extremities. Collision with other players was the most common activity at the time of injury, accounting for 40% of all injuries. The conclusion of this study and the evidence from other studies suggests that youth soccer is a relatively low risk sport. However, a substantial amount of injuries could be prevented. It is necessary to identify the risk factors, which are associated with these types of injuries.

Management of neglected giant omphalocele with Gore-tex in a child aged 8 years.

Omphalocele is a disease of neonatal age and its present management is successful in almost all specialized centers of Pediatric Surgery. A case of an 8-year-old girl who was managed with conservative treatment during her neonatal period with mercurochrome (Grob method) is presented. Due to very serious congenital cardiopathy, a corrective operative procedure of the omphalocele was not feasible during neonatal age. However, following successful heart surgery the child grew up with her initial disorder. The child was first seen in our clinic at the age of 5 years, presenting with a very large omphalocele. Following a staged pressure of the abdomen with a special belt an attempt was made to close the ventral hernia successfully using a Gore-tex sheet.

Ventriculoperitoneal shunting complicated with cerebrospinal fluid pseudocyst and acute appendicitis.

Ventriculoperitoneal shunting (VPS) is the standard treatment of hydrocephalus in children but can be followed by various intraabdominal complications. Formation of a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pseudocyst is a rare VPS complication. A case of a non-infected CSF pseudocyst complicated with acute appendicitis is presented.

Organisation of a trauma registry in a regional Greek university hospital: the first two years experience.

OBJECTIVE: To design and implement a hospital trauma registry so as to be able to monitor the care of injured patients. SETTING: Teaching hospital, Greece. SUBJECTS: All patients admitted with trauma from January 1997. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Design of a suitable form, establishment of inclusion and exclusion criteria, injury severity scoring, finding money and personnel, and getting suitable computer hardware and software for reliable collection and analysis of data. RESULTS: We experienced great difficulty in getting funding, so were unable to employ dedicated staff to collect the data, though we have had a part-time secretary to coordinate the registry whose salary has been paid by a pharmaceutical company. We have to rely on junior doctors to collect the data, which works well when they are enthusiastic (though not all are). We decided to use the data collection form used by the UK Trauma Network. We are trying to collect sufficient data to code severity by more than one system, but at present this is causing problems because busy nurses and doctors do not like filling in forms. Software has also been a problem as most of it is in English and translation is a considerable workload. The calculations are still being done manually while we work with two computer programmers to develop our own. We have submitted a research protocol to the Ministry of Health which has been accepted and this will guarantee our expenses for the next two years. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a philosophy of continuous quality improvement is never easy, and we expect funding to be a permanent source of anxiety. Our progress so far has been good, but not as good as we hoped; however, we are optimistic that as people see the value of continuous monitoring of the system they will become more enthusiastic and supportive.

Spontaneous gastric perforation in premature twins.

Two pairs of identical and non-identical premature neonates proceeding from twin pregnancies were operated on for spontaneous gastric perforation. The newborns in our case, one girl and one boy two different pregnancies were delivered by emergency cesarean section. Their gestational ages were 30 and 32 weeks, and their birth weight 1400 and 2100 g, respectively. Both of the neonates were being treated in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit when the perforations were diagnosed. They presented clinically abrupt symptoms of abdominal distension and pneumoperitoneum. The sites of the ruptures were located at the anterior gastric wall near the gastroesophageal junction. The sibling twins were consequently also observed very carefully and fortunately they did not develop any similar clinical symptoms. All four twins were finally discharged from the hospital in good condition.

Solitary crossed renal ectopia.

A case of a solitary crossed renal ectopia in a 45-year-old male patient with a simple renal bruise during traffic accident is presented. A brief review of the literature and the embryogenesis of this extremely rare congenital anomaly are discussed.