Hashimoto's thyroiditis presenting as bilateral knee arthropathy

Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease associated with antimicrosomal antibodies. Thyroid failure from any cause can lead to hypothyroidism which has numerous manifestations, including rheumatic. Rheumatic or musculoskeletal symptoms may be the initial presentation of hypothyroidism. A case is described in which knee pain was the presenting symptom in a patient with Hashimoto's thyroiditis without any other sign or symptom of hypothyroidism. Synovial fluid was non-inflammatory and lab tests were consistent with hypothyroidism secondary to Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The non-inflammatory arthralgia and arthritis, stiffness and musculoskeletal signs of hypothyroidism were completely reversible with adequate thyroid replacement hormone. Knee effusions are a common sign in hypothyroidism with a sluggish bulge sign, which is due to highly viscous synovial fluid. Purpose of this case is early diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism by primary care physicians, which can probably prevent many patients from developing polyarthritis associated with hypothyroidism.     

Urinary incontinence in the elderly population

Urinary incontinence is an important and common health care problem affecting the elderly population. Common types of incontinence affecting the elderly are: stress incontinence, urge incontinence, overflow incontinence and mixed type. The elderly patient suffering from urinary incontinence does not often seek treatment voluntary due to a misconception that it is part of a normal ageing process. Without treatment, urinary incontinence may lead to serious psychological and social complications such as depression, anxiety, embarrassment, low self-esteem and social isolation. Overall it is associated with significant poor quality of life for the elderly. Life style modification and behavioural therapy with or without pharmacotherapy help in improving the symptoms. Pelvic floor muscles' training is beneficial for stress incontinence in up to fifty percent of the patients. Elderly patients with urinary incontinence should be encouraged to seek treatment early, as the problem can be treated and they will have a better quality of life.     

Malignant haemangio endothelioma (angiosarcoma) concomitant presentation in the mandible and occiput--a case report

A case of angiosarcoma presenting simultaneously in the mandible and occiput is presented. The mandibular swelling was preceded by toothache for which the patient had tooth extraction, after which the rate of growth increased tremendously. It was not possible to determine without doubt which lesion presented first. The need to evaluate and investigate all cases of jaw swelling that require tooth extraction is emphasised. Angiosarcoma being a haemorrhagic lesion could be complicated life threatening haemorrhage, if a tooth related to it is extracted, as was experienced on incisional biopsy of this lesion. The procedure was accompanied by torrential bleeding which was only controlled after external carotid artery ligation. This, to our knowledge, is the first reported case of angiosarcoma occurring simultaneously in the mandible and occipital bones.     

Analysis of blood tests in the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital

There is ample evidence that many investigations sent from the accident and emergency department are inappropriate, thus affecting the quality of patient care. A study was designed to address this issue in the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital of a large city. A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out during the 3-month period 1 December 1996 to 28 February 1997. A set of guidelines was used to assess the appropriateness of different blood tests for the initial assessment of the patients presenting with common clinical conditions, although any investigation could be done if considered important for patient management. All other blood tests were considered inappropriate. A total of 6401 patients were seen in the emergency department and 14,300 blood tests were done on 3529 patients with diagnoses covered by the guidelines. Of these 62.2% were found to be inappropriate. Of the total 22,655 investigations done on all the 6401 patients seen, only 3.8% influenced the diagnosis, 3.0% influenced patient care in the emergency department, and 4.0% influenced the decision to admit or not. Amylase and arterial blood gases were found to be the most appropriate investigations. Analysis of reasons for unnecessary use of emergency tests suggested that improving supervision, decreasing the utilization of the emergency department as a phlebotomy service for the hospital, and abolition of routine blood tests would help to improve patient care.     

Hearing impairment in the elderly

Hearing impairment is one of the most important health problems of the elderly above 60. Very often it leads to verbal communication difficulty and without treatment it can cause serious psychological and social complications such as depression and social isolation. Prebyscusis remains a leading cause of sensorineural deafness in the elderly. Elderly patient must be encouraged to seek proper hearing assessment if they face hearing difficulty. Active screening by health care workers and patient self-evaluation by answering a simple list of screening questions are possible for early detection and treatment of hearing loss in the elderly. Although hearing loss in the elderly may not have a cure, early rehabilitation helps to restore better quality of life if the problem is detected early.     

The Mentakab Hypertension Study Project. Part III--Detection of hypertension in the outpatient department.

Undetected hypertension is an obstacle to effective blood pressure control in the community. A study was done to assess the justification of screening in the outpatient department. Only 13% of all visits to the outpatient department resulted in an attempt to detect hypertension. The common reasons leading to blood pressure measurement were headache and dizziness. Current practice of hypertension detection appeared inadequate and irrational. Nine per cent of all visits to the outpatient department were already accounted for by hypertensives. A screening survey found that 30% of all non-hypertensive patients attending outpatient department aged 30 years or more had blood pressure greater than or equal to 140/90 mmHg. The drop out rate among these newly diagnosed hypertensives was 100%. Existing resources are already inadequate and existing hypertension care has also been shown to be inadequate. Screening can only be expected to considerably increase hypertensive patient load without however any assurance that effective long term care can be delivered. Labelling people as hypertensives in this manner may be harmful. The question of screening cannot be considered individually, separate from the entire problem of hypertension control. Detection must be linked to treatment in a programme designed to promote compliance and capable of delivering adequate care before it can be justified.     

Idiopathic heterotopic ossification in the intensive care setting

Heterotopic ossification is characterised by the periarticular deposition of ectopic bone. It typically occurs after trauma, neurogenic injury, or congenital causes. Idiopathic heterotopic ossification has been rarely reported. A patient who developed idiopathic heterotopic ossification in the intensive care unit without any known predisposing conditions is presented.     

'Hospice' versus 'hospital' care--re-evaluation after 10 years as seen by surviving spouses

This study compares terminal cancer care in 1967-69 with care in 1977-79 as evaluated by surviving spouses of patients who died in St Christopher's Hospice and other local hospitals. Patients and their surviving spouses reported less personal distress in both settings in 1977-79 than in 1967-69 and the patients were also thought to have suffered less pain. These differences were found before, during and, in surviving spouses, after the period of terminal care. They were confirmed in subsamples of 30-34 patients matched for age, sex, socio-economic status and duration of terminal period. Improvements may be attributable to the training in terminal care provided by staff of the Hospice since 1967 and augmented in its Study Centre which was opened in 1973. Although pain and distress in the patient is no longer a major problem in either setting, spouses in 1977-79 remain less anxious at St Christopher's Hospice than at other hospitals; they play a larger part in the care of the patient and are in closer contact with staff before and after bereavement.     

Dealing with the difficult older patient.

Physicians are often asked to intervene when elderly patients in acute or long-term care facilities are disruptive, demanding or abusive. Though medication may be the immediate response, it often fails to solve the problem, which, being situational and behavioural, calls for a situational and behavioural solution. An organized approach to solving such problems is presented that takes into account the interactions among the patient, family, staff, setting and circumstances. The role of the physician as leader in the process is also discussed.     

Graves' disease presenting as pyrexia of unknown origin

Fever is a common clinical manifestation of inflammatory processes of the thyroid and thyroid crisis. On the other hand, fever alone as a presenting symptom of thyrotoxicosis, without other manifestations, is extremely rare. A female patient is described in whom fever persisted for two months prior to hospitalization, but without clinical symptoms or signs to lead to suspicion of thyroid disease. After exhaustive investigation it was found that the patient was suffering from hyperthyroidism. Fever disappeared gradually on antithyroid therapy, recurred when the drugs were withdrawn for a rechallenge trial, and cleared up again after renewal. Four other cases of persistent fever as a presenting symptom of hyperthyroidism were found on a review of previous publications. Thyrotoxicosis should, therefore, be included in the differential diagnosis of pyrexia of unknown origin.     

Eugenic sterilization: a discussion of certain legal,medical, and moral aspects of present practices in our public mental institutions

Eugenic sterilization is defined as sterilization of a person who is either mentally ill or mentally defective and will either severely handicap any future offspring through heredity or is unable to properly care for a child. When an institutionalized mentally disordered person of reproductive age reaches a stage when he is able to return to the community, 3 possibilities arise: 1) eugenic surgical sterilization; 2) eugenic institutional sterilization, where the patient is effectively sterilized by being kept in the institution; and 3) discharge without eugenic sterilization. 3 cases of patients discharged without sterilization are presented. A review of the law of eugenic surgical sterilization reveals that 22 states have laws that permit compulsory eugenic sterilization without patient consent. Even though a state does not specifically authorize eugenic sterilization, it does not mean that such a procedure cannot be done legally. However, fewer and fewer eugenic sterilizations are being performed. Decisions relating to sterilization more often are made by medical men than by judges. Medically, the Committee of the American Neurological Association for the Investigation of Eugenical Sterilization, in a report made 25 years ago, condemned on both medical and philosophical grounds widespread eugenic surgical sterilizations except in certain cases. Morally, the author believes that patients and physicians are incapable of acting as moral beings in dealing with the question of eugenic sterilization because of 1) lack of proper facilities to allow freedom of choice, and 2) lack of knowledge of available relevant facts. With respect to the 3 alternatives for dealing with mental patients who are capable of reproducing, the author asks: Is it morally just to sterilize a person without first offering adequate treatment, rehabilitation, and follow-up that a well-equipped institution could offer? Is it just to incarcerate a patient without offering the personnel and facilities for proper custodial and therapeutic care? Is it proper to discharge a person without sterilization without offering rehabilitation and follow-up that might lead to a better life? A study comparing the way the problem of sterilization is being handled in states with different approaches to the subject is proposed.     

Intelligent Analysis of Acute Bed Overflow in a Tertiary Hospital in Singapore

Hospital beds are a scarce resource and always in need. The beds are often organized by clinical specialties for better patient care. When the Accident & Emergency Department (A&E) admits a patient, there may not be an available bed that matches the requested specialty. The patient may be thus asked to wait at the A&E till a matching bed is available, or assigned a bed from a different specialty, which results in bed overflow. While this allows the patient to have faster access to an inpatient bed and treatment, it creates other problems. For instance, nursing care may be suboptimal and the doctors will need to spend more time to locate the overflow patients. The decision to allocate an overflow bed, or to let the patient wait a bit longer, can be a complicated one. While there can be a policy to guide the bed allocation decision, in reality it depends on clinical calls, current supply and waiting list, projected supply (i.e. planned discharges) and demand. The extent of bed overflow can therefore vary greatly, both in time dimension and across specialties. In this study, we extracted hospital data and used statistical and data mining approaches to identify the patterns behind bed overflow. With this insight, the hospital administration can be better equipped to devise strategies to reduce bed overflow and therefore improve patient care. Computational results show the viability of these intelligent data analysis techniques for understanding and managing the bed overflow problem     

Huge retroperitoneal germinoma presenting with pathological fracture of the spine

Primary retroperitoneal germ cell tumors are extremely rare neoplasms. The most common presenting features are abdominal pain and palpable abdominal masses. Pathological fractures of the spine presenting as bilateral lower leg weakness are exceptionally rare. We describe a 16-year-old girl who developed progressive paraplegia after a minor falling injury. Radiological study demonstrated a huge retroperitoneal tumor with invasion of the T12 vertebral body and spinal canal. A posterior surgical approach was used to perform laminectomy (T12, L1), removal of the intraspinal tumor and internal fixation with transpedical screws (T10, T11 to L2,3), and posterolateral fusion. Postoperative combination chemotherapy for six cycles with cisplatin (100 mg/m2 per day for 1 day every 3 weeks), bleomycin (15 units intravenously weekly for 18 weeks) and etoposide (100 mg/m2 per day for 3 days every 3 weeks) were given and the tumor responded dramatically. The patient had fully recovered without evidence of sequelae or recurrence at 2 years after operation. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case in which a huge retroperitoneal germinoma presented as pathological fracture of the spine and spinal cord compression. The effectiveness of the postoperative cisplatin-based chemotherapy against this tumor made major retroperitoneal surgery to remove the main tumor mass unnecessary is also demonstrated.     

Proper care for the dying: a critical public issue.

The ability of the medical profession to sustain life, or more appropriately, to prolong dying, in patients with terminal illness, creates a most complex and controversial situation for all involved: the patient, if mentally alert; the patient's family; and the medical care team including physicians, nurses and attendants. This situation is especially complex in large acute care hospitals where medical and nursing students, residents and house officers receive advanced medical training. A major problem, prolonging the dying of the terminally ill, with its medical, legal, ethical and economic complexities now confronts American society. The problem is particularly acute in teaching hospitals, in which one finds a disproportionate number of terminally ill patients. The ability to work at these questions as a community rather than as adversaries will determine much about the ability of the health care system to respect the dignity and autonomy of those who seek aid and comfort when faced with serious illness and impending death. Better communication between the physicians, health care providers, the lawyers and ethicists must be developed in order to solve these problems. Over the next ten years society and our elected representatives will be making very demanding decisions about the use of the health dollar. One possible way to prevent increasing costs is to reach significant agreement on the proper care of the dying. Proper care for the dying is being considered, discussed, and evaluated by very thoughtful people. It is not governments which should decide who is to live or who is to die. There is the serious problem of the 'slippery slope' to euthanasia by omission if cost containment becomes the major force in formulating policy on the proper care of the dying.     

医保患者日间腹腔镜胆囊切除术的费用分析

目的探讨医疗保险患者日间腹腔镜胆囊切除术的费用,降低患者医疗费用。方法在医疗保险患者中选择了36例日间腹腔镜胆囊切除术患者,32例常规腹腔镜胆囊切除术患者进行评价分析。结果日间腹腔镜胆囊切除术平均住院费用为5341.207±672.5696元,腹腔镜胆囊切除术平均住院费用为7308.413±533.6341元,两组比较差异显著（P〈0.01）,可降低医疗费用。两组手术全部成功,所有患者均未出现术后出血、感染等并发症。出院后腹胀ALC组2例,LC组3例。离院后发热ALC组3例,LC组2例。术后24小时后伤口疼痛者ALC组6例,LC组8例。以上均未予特殊处理自行缓解。结论日间腹腔镜胆囊切除术在临床中的应用,使患者降低费用的同时,保证医疗质量,又尽早康复,成效显著。     

Medical Record Innovations That Can Improve Physician Productivity

Medical records are the fulcrum of patient care activities. They represent the primary reference point with respect to the patient's medical status and long-term planning. A significant portion of the patient care dollar is invested in the medical record document and its handling. The most critical part of this process takes place in the physician's examination room during the patient encounter. The use of SmartCharts ⁴ is a way to expedite the chart generation process and improve the quality and consistency of the source information from which all future care and plans are generated. The process removes a substantial portion of the human memory cycle that is needed for chart development and improves the encounter process by exploring the full range of diagnostic signs and symptoms that are associated with a preselected diagnosis or patient problem. The system is designed for stand-alone operation or insertion into an already-functioning electronic medical record system.     

Highly selective vagotomy in the treatment of complicated duodenal ulcer

Highly selective vagotomy has been utilized urgently in 33 patients with bleeding duodenal ulcer, 16 patients with pyloric stenosis and six patients presenting with perforated ulcer. Five patients died after surgery for bleeding duodenal ulcer, and two patients rebled after surgery. Forty-eight patients were reviewed at a mean of 28 months with an excellent outcome being obtained in 45 patients. Two of the three patients with poor results had proven ulcer recurrence while the third patient required reoperation for recurrent pyloric stenosis. No patient has suffered diarrhoea after vagotomy. Highly selective vagotomy is an effective treatment for urgent management of complicated duodenal ulceration and is without troublesome post-vagotomy symptoms.