JRSM Open最新文献

In this paper, we describe the outcome of bilateral distal femoral endoprosthesis for the management of acute severe trauma. We also review the literature to ascertain the published functional results of distal femoral endoprosthesis for acute trauma of native knees. In severely comminuted intra-articular fractures, such as those our patient sustained, reconstruction is not always possible, and predictable outcomes can rarely be assured with conviction. Endoprosthesis is an established treatment modality for replacement after resection in limb salvage surgery. In this regard, there is a limited but vital role that endoprosthesis can play in acute complex trauma. We demonstrate a good short-term outcome when bilateral endoprostheses are utilised for complex distal femur trauma.

Objectives: To investigate the contribution, efficiency and safety of experienced physician associates included in the staffing of medical/surgical teams in acute hospitals in England, including facilitating and hindering factors.

Design: Mixed methods longitudinal, multi-site evaluation of a two-year programme employing 27 American physician associates: interviews and documentary analysis.

Setting: Eight acute hospitals, England.

Participants: 36 medical directors, consultants, junior doctors, nurses and manager, 198 documents.

Results: Over time, the experienced physician associates became viewed as a positive asset to medical and surgical teams, even in services where high levels of scepticism were initially expressed. Their positive contribution was described as bringing continuity to the medical/surgical team which benefited patients, consultants, doctors-in-training, nurses and the overall efficiency of the service. This is the first report of the positive impact that, including physician associates in medical/surgical teams, had on achieving safe working hours for doctors in training. Many reported the lack of physician associates regulation with attendant legislated authority to prescribe medicines and order ionising radiation was a hindrance in their deployment and employment. However, by the end of the programme, seven hospitals had published plans to increase the numbers of physician associates employed and host clinical placements for student physician associates.

Conclusions: The programme demonstrated the types of contributions the experienced physician associates made to patient experience, junior doctor experience and acute care services with medical workforce shortages. The General Medical Council will regulate the profession in the future. Robust quantitative research is now required.

This study examines the impact of diet on health in different districts of mid-19th century London. Surveys of London diets and living condition were compared with mortality data between 1851 and 1880. Despite an abundance of fresh foods reaching London, the very poor labouring population living in the inner boroughs between 1850 and 1861 had great difficulty obtaining sufficient nourishment because of its cost. This population showed high death rates from infectious diseases, notably pulmonary tuberculosis, which was endemic and is typically associated with poor nutrition. This high death rate was exacerbated by more deaths from gastrointestinal infections associated with a polluted water supply from the river Thames. By contrast, the poor in the outer suburbs enjoyed both more nutritious diets and cleaner water which was associated with lower death rates comparable to those in rural Britain. Outer suburbs retained a relatively rural life-style associated with cleaner water and an abundance of locally grown food. In the following two decades, there was a significant reduction in the death rates from gastrointestinal infections in the inner boroughs which correlated with the major improvements in London's water supply. The decline in death rates from tuberculosis and other infectious disease was inconsistent and increased in some boroughs, suggesting patchy economic improvement and a persisting limited ability of many of London's poor to afford a nutritious diet.

Objective: To report doctors' early career preferences for emergency medicine, their eventual career destinations and factors influencing their career pathways.

Design: Self-administered questionnaire surveys.

Setting: United Kingdom.

Participants: All graduates from all UK medical schools in selected graduation years between 1993 and 2015.

Main outcome measures: Choices for preferred eventual specialty; eventual career destinations; certainty about choice of specialty; correspondence between early specialty choice for emergency medicine and eventually working in emergency medicine.

Results: Emergency medicine was chosen by 5.6% of graduates of 2015 when surveyed in 2016, and 7.1% of graduates of 2012 surveyed in 2015. These figures represent a modest increase compared with other recent cohorts, but there is no evidence of a sustained long-term trend of an increase. More men than women specified emergency medicine - in 2016 6.6% vs. 5.0%, and in 2015 7.9% vs. 6.5%. Doctors choosing emergency medicine were less certain about their choice than doctors choosing other specialties. Of graduates of 2005 who chose emergency medicine in year 1, only 18% were working in emergency medicine in year 10. Looking backwards, from destinations to early choices, 46% of 2005 graduates working in emergency medicine in 2015 had specified emergency medicine as their choice of eventual specialty in year 1.

Conclusions: There was no substantial increase across the cohorts in choices for emergency medicine. Policy should address how to encourage more doctors to choose the specialty, and to create a future UK health service environment in which those who choose emergency medicine early on do not later change their minds in large numbers.

Head and neck carcinoma of unknown primary accounts for approximately 1-5% of all head and neck cancers and presents a genuine diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma. Despite advanced investigations, the primary tumour location remains unknown in up to 40% of these cases. Transoral robotic surgery presents a viable diagnostic and therapeutic option in these patients. This surgical innovation alongside advances in the understanding of head and neck cancer biology means that a multidisciplinary approach in the management of these complex patients is of utmost importance to ensure optimal therapeutic outcomes.

Recognition of the role of hyperglycaemia in seizures is vital, because they tend to refractory to antiepileptic drugs and respond to insulin therapy and hydration.

We present a case of a 30-year-old male diagnosed with atypical cystic fibrosis. This report demonstrates the heterogeneity of the presentation of this common genetic disease.

Computed tomography scanning could be safely used in later pregnancy to aid diagnosis and target management of the acute abdomen.

Objective: Using data from 40 years of national surveys of UK medical graduates, we report on ophthalmology as a career choice.

Design setting and participants: Self-administered questionnaire surveys of all graduates from all UK medical schools in selected years of qualification between 1974 and 2015.

Main outcome measures: Career specialty preferences of doctors one, three, and five years after graduation; career specialty destinations 10 years after graduation.

Results: One year after graduation, ophthalmology was the first career preference of 1.6% of the qualifiers of 1974-83, 2.2% of 1993-2002, and 1.8% of 2005-15. The corresponding percentages three years after graduation were 1.5, 1.8, and 1.2%. Men were more likely than women to choose ophthalmology: among graduates of 2005-15, 2.4% of men and 1.4% of women did so at one year, as did 1.7% of men and 0.7% of women at five years. Seventy per cent of doctors practising as ophthalmologists 10 years after qualification had told us in their first post-qualification year that ophthalmology was their first choice of career.

Conclusions: There has been no systematic change in recent years in the proportion of recent medical graduates intending to have a career in ophthalmology when surveyed one year after graduation. However, the proportion at three and five years after graduation was lower than that at year 1. Suggestions for maintaining interest in the specialty include improved career advice, greater early clinical exposure to ophthalmology, and improved access to flexible training. Most practising ophthalmologists had made early decisions that this was their intended career.

Stress fracture of the clavicle is a rare injury usually occurring in high-level athletes. It is typically a result of repetitive sporting activity or unusual strain. We present the first case of an occupational clavicle stress fracture in a young female barista. The patient initially presented with insidious onset clavicular pain. There was no history of trauma, and an undisplaced fracture was present on the plain radiograph but overlooked by the emergency physicians. Two weeks later, the patient presented again with worsening symptoms, and a displaced fracture of the clavicle was diagnosed on plain radiograph. A thorough occupational history revealed the cause of her pain, which was the mechanical activity of coffee tamping and the fracture went on to unite with no further complications. No other cause was found on investigations including magnetic resonance imaging. The fracture healed with cessation of coffee tamping. This case highlights a previously unrecognised occupational hazard of coffee tamping as a potential cause of stress fracture of clavicle.