British pilot study of exercise therapy. I. Middle-aged men.

The physiological and biochemical effects of a carefully graduated course of vigorous gymnasium training with two or three weekly exercise sessions lasting only 15 minutes have been studied in middle-aged London business men. Activity diaries and psychological questionnaires indicated that these men had a positive attitude to exercise which was probably greater than average. The gymnasium exercises caused a large oxygen debt and considerable rises in plasma catecholamines and lactate levels. A close correlation was found between the pulse rate during exercise and the Borg scale of perceived exertion, so that both could be used to ensure that short periods of exercise were sufficiently vigorous to produce a training effect, and protect against over-exertion. The acceptability of this particular exercise regime was shown by the low fall-out and injury rate. It is suggested that this exercise training programme possesses many features which are advantageous if increased physical activity is to be more widely used as a method of reducing some of the risk factors in coronary heart disease.     

Emotional sequelae of parents and sibs following the drowning or near-drowning of a child.

This study reports the findings from an investigation to evaluate the intra-family dynamics that occurred with 111 cases of childhood drowning and near-drowning in the City of Brisbane in 1971-1975. Personal interviews were obtained with 77 of the families. 24 per cent of parent-dyads separated following the drowning of their child, whereas none of the 54 families of surviving children separated. Accident generated stresses within the studied families tended to persist for years after the incident. Parents volunteered the information that they drank more, experienced sleep disorders and nightmares, and reported significant anxiety states. 19 per cent of parents of drowned children received specialist psychiatric treatment following the drowning. Two cases of surviving children received specialist psychiatric therapy (these were both parents who had inflicted non-accidental injury on their child, and had attempted to drown their child in the bath). In one sense, a child's death is more honourable from society's point of view if the child dies from a chronic medical illness such as leukaemia. In the case of a child's death in the family bath tub or the backyard swimming pool, the extra society sanctions of culpability and accusation further intensified the likelihood of the normal grief process being transformed into a pathological variant.     

Pelvic hernias in children

Two pelvic hernias, extremely rare in infants, were repaired extra-abdominally through an oblique buttock incision.     

Using multilevel models for assessing the variability of multinational resource use and cost data

Multinational economic evaluations often calculate a single measure of cost-effectiveness using cost data pooled across several countries. To assess the validity of pooling international cost data the reasons for cost variation across countries need to be assessed. Previously, ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression models have been used to identify factors associated with variability in resource use and total costs. However, multilevel models (MLMs), which accommodate the hierarchical structure of the data, may be more appropriate. This paper compares these different techniques using a multinational dataset comprising case-mix, resource use and cost data on 1300 stroke admissions from 13 centres in 11 European countries. OLS and MLMs were used to estimate the effect of patient and centre-level covariates on the total length of hospital stay (LOS) and total cost. MLMs with normal and gamma distributions for the data within centres were compared. The results from the OLS model showed that both patient and centre-level covariates were associated with LOS and total cost. The estimates from the MLMs showed that none of the centre-level characteristics were associated with LOS, and the level of spending on health was the centre-level variable most highly associated with total cost. We conclude that using OLS models for assessing international variation can lead to incorrect inferences, and that MLMs are more appropriate for assessing why resource use and costs vary across centres.     

Role of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the early management of acute gallbladder disease

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated the role of laparoscopic surgery in the early management of acute gallbladder disease in a single large UK teaching hospital. METHODS: Details of all emergency admissions for acute gallbladder disease from January 2000 to December 2001 were identified and additional information from the hospital records was reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Three hundred and eighty-five patients with gallstone disease (243 acute biliary pain, 142 acute cholecystitis) and 15 with acalculous disease were identified. The conversion rate was higher during early laparoscopic surgery for acute calculous cholecystitis than in operations for acute biliary pain (19 versus 4 per cent; P = 0.002). In patients with acute calculous cholecystitis the conversion rate was significantly lower in operations within 48 h of admission (one of 26) than when surgery was delayed beyond 48 h (14 of 52) or subsequently carried out electively (seven of 21) (P = 0.014). Elective surgery for previous acute cholecystitis was associated with a higher conversion rate (seven of 21 patients) than elective surgery for biliary pain (three of 65) (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute calculous cholecystitis should be performed, where possible, within the first 48 h of admission.