JOHN WILKINS,SURGEON, 1826–1905: EXPERIENCES IN WILLIAMSTOWN (MELBOURNE) AND NEW ZEALAND

John Wilkins was a prominent colonial surgeon for 15 years in Williamstown, Victoria. During the early gold rushes he prospered from investments in property. In Melbourne he aimed to become a recognized authority in diseases of the eye and throat, but he did not achieve his aims, and caused bitterness in the medical community by advertising. After 10 years he moved to Dunedin where he produced the first publication on anaesthesia in New Zealand. He moved to Christchurch, but found contentment in Auckland where he practised general medicine with special consultations in general surgery and diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and where he lived for the remainder of his life.     

NEUROLOGICAL INJURIES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA: THE INFLUENCE OF DISTANCE ON MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOME

It has been shown that in at least two Australian states (New South Wales and South Australia), there is a disproportionately high incidence of lethal neurological injuries in country areas. To determine whether any of this increased rural mortality results from geographical remoteness from specialized hospital services, we have studied prospectively a consecutive series of 153 patients with head injuries (140) or spinal injuries (13). who were transferred to Adelaide, South Australia from country centres during a six month period. Distance appeared to be an occasional cause of delay in instituting expert primary treatment. Of 13 deaths, three resulted from potentially remediable causes (intracranial bleeding, airway obstruction), and in two others difficulties in early supportive care may have contributed to death. First aid sometimes had to be administered by lay persons, and appeared to have been occasionally inadequate. Undesirable delay in transfer from accident site to country hospital was recorded in a few cases; in some of these, private transport was used. Distance was an important cause of delay in transferring patients to Adelaide, since 77% of patients had to travel in excess of 50 km. Thirty patients were brought to Adelaide by medical retrieval teams. These teams, which are centrally co-ordinated, have been useful in extending to country areas the specialized techniques of emergency intensive care and less frequently of operative neurosurgery.     

CANCER OF THE TONGUE AND ORAL CAVITY IN AUCKLAND,NEW ZEALAND, 1970–86

This report comprises a retrospective review of the clinical data on 157 patients seen in the auckland area having a diagnosis of cancer of the tongue, floor of the mouth, inferior alveolus, or buccal mucosa (retromolar area, vestibule of the mouth, and cheek mucosa) during 1970–86. One hundred patients were male, 95% were european, 85% were cigarette smokers, and 58% had a history of high alcohol intake. All primary tumours were squamous cell carcinomas, 50% were located in the tongue, 27% in the floor of the mouth, and 11.5% each in the buccal mucosa and inferior alveolus. The majority (60%) of patients with tongue cancer were clinically stage i at presentation while other intra-oral tumours were evenly distributed between stages i and iv. Surgical resection of the primary intra-oral lesion produced local control in 90% of stage i tumours, but this fell to below 70% in stage ii—iv tumours. Most patients (82%) who recurred locally had positive or ‘close’ margins, and this rate of local tumour recurrence as a consequence of narrow margins did not decrease with the addition of adjuvant radiotherapy. Of those patients with stage i disease who received only treatment of the primary lesion, 20% later developed regional nodal disease which was controlled in more than half by neck dissection, but control was achieved only in 11% of patients treated with radiation. The presence of regional disease at presentation was associated with a poor prognosis. It is concluded that local control of inferior oral cavity tumours can be achieved if resection is accomplished with clear margins. Regional control can be obtained in 50% of patients with neck dissection. Considered together, the high rate of regional recurrence with stage i lesions, and the poor results following salvage therapy (12% 2 year survival) indicate that these patients require as aggressive initial therapy (often involving neck dissection) as do those with more advanced disease.     

SALES AND SCIENCE: CHANGING PATTERNS OF PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICAL DEVICE ADVERTISING IN PEER REVIEWED UROLOGY PUBLICATIONS, 1975–2000

PURPOSE: The effects of advertising on urological practice are controversial. We studied patterns of pharmaceutical and medical device marketing in peer reviewed urological journals in 1975 and 2000. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pharmaceutical and medical device advertising in 1 European and 2 American peer reviewed urological journals were evaluated in 4 randomly selected issues of each journal published in 1975 and 2000, respectively. Advertising quantity and the qualitative characteristics of each advertisement were analyzed. RESULTS: We analyzed 574 advertisements in 24 issues. Advertising decreased between 1975 and 2000 based on the number of pages per issue (55.3 to 31.9, p = 0.04), number of advertisements per issue (30.4 to 17.4, p = 0.0098) and the ratio of advertising-to-scientific pages (0.399 to 0.151, p = 0.0016). Mean advertisement length was stable at 1.8 pages. The top 3 advertisers in 1975 were Eaton, Roche and Warner compared with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Merck in 2000. Advertising for antibiotics comprised 70.3% of all pharmaceutical advertisements in 1975 but only 15.2% in 2000 (p = 0.0001), while advertising for benign prostatic hyperplasia, erectile dysfunction and hormonal therapy increased sharply. Nutritional supplement marketing increased from 0.5% of all advertisements in 1975 to 4.3% in 2000 (p = 0.0026). The incidence of advertisements citing peer reviewed literature increased from 16.7% to 33% (p = 0.0001) with a greater increase in the European than in the American journals. CONCLUSIONS: Advertising in peer reviewed urological journals has decreased since 1975 and fewer companies now market more products. Few advertisements cite the scientific literature. Better understanding of pharmaceutical marketing patterns may improve awareness of these efforts to influence physician practice.     

GASTROINTESTINAL CANCER FOLLOW-UP: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEQUENTIAL CEA,TPA AND CA 19–9 EVALUATION IN THE EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF RECURRENCES

One-hundred and seventy-four consecutive patients who underwent curative resection for gastric and colorec-tal cancer between 1983 and 1985 were studied prospectively to evaluate the roles of sequential carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and Ca 19–9 determinations and independent clinical examinations, in the early diagnosis of resectable recurrences. Sixty-six recurrences (33 from gastric and 33 from colorectal cancer) were detected between 6 and 42 months after primary surgery. In gastric cancer CEA, TPA and Ca 19–9 showed a sensitivity of 64%. 73% and 60% respectively and a specificity of 67%. 65% and 54% respectively. Nine patients (27%) underwent surgical treatment for recurrent disease, and four of these (44.4%) had resectable recurrence, for a total resectability rate of 12%. Of these four patients, three are still living after 12, 36 and 44 months respectively from re-operation without evidence of neoplastic disease. In one of these patients, re-operation was performed on the basis of the elevation of the three markers, without any other clinical sign of disease. This patient had a resectable solitary hepatic recurrence. In colorectal cancer, CEA, TPA and Ca 19–9 showed a sensitivity of 73%. 73% and 49% respectively, and a specificity of 77%. 87% and 97% respectively. Fourteen patients (42.4%) underwent surgical treatment for recurrent disease and eight of these (57%) showed resectable recurrence, for a total resectability rate of 24.2%. Six patients are still living after 9, 16, 21, 31, 41 and 53 months respectively from re-operation without evidence of neoplastic disease. In four cases the rises of the three marker levels was the one sign of recurrent disease. In one case, the operation revealed a peritoneal carcinomatosis, and in the other three cases resectable hepatic metastases were found. All these three patients are still living and disease-free. In 46 cases, the rise in the value of CEA (35 cases) and/or TPA (34 cases) and/or Ca 19–9 (28 cases) was the first sign of recurrence. and the diagnosis was established later by clinical methods. In this group. the median time for diagnosis of recurrence, based on increase in initial markers comparison with routine clinical and instrumental follow-up (lead time), was 3 months for liver metastases and 4 months for disseminated metastases. The results of our study indicate that a follow-up programme based on CEA, TPA and Ca 19–9 assays is related to an early diagnosis and good resectability rate for recurrent gastric disease.