Medical equipment that can be manufactured at low cost, is simple to use and can be easily maintained will help extend surgery to the 5 billion people worldwide who currently cannot get access to it.
Long considered an unnecessary organ, the appendix is now the focus of several studies that aim to better understand its role. Present in many mammals, including humans, it appears to have developed at least 16 times over the course of the evolutionary history of mammals, suggesting that its function must confer a positive selective advantage on those that have it. A new study carried out by…
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected children with direct impacts of the infection as well as on them leading normal lives. Schooling, play and vaccinations are among issues that can affect children’s health. Delay in taking paediatric patients to the emergency room (ER) has also had a negative impact, for example late treatment of acute appendicitis. Two experts from Spain tackled these topics…
Surgery for appendicitis is the most common emergency operation in children. A new study has found that the UK has the highest reported national rate of ‘normal appendicectomy,’ where children undergo surgery for suspected appendicitis but laboratory examination of the removed appendix finds it to be normal. Although most children who are misdiagnosed as having appendicitis improve without…
The pros and cons of CT (computed tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CEUS (contrast enhanced ultrasound) for emergency abdominal use were highlighted by speakers in an ECR 2019 session under the broader heading: ‘Abdominal Emergencies: advanced imaging in daily routine’.
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become an important adjunct to clinical diagnosis and procedural guidance in the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED), supported by literature demonstrating that its use can improve patient safety and expedite life-saving care. POCUS further helps to reduce costs and children’s exposure to ionizing radiation. Not only is POCUS ideally suited for…
Emergency radiology is no longer a babbling field; professionalisation will bring more recognition to this young subspecialty, according to Elizabeth Dick, a London-based consultant, who will coordinate part of the new European Diploma in Emergency Radiology (EDER), the European Society of Radiology’s new tool. We interviewed the radiologist, who spoke of her daily practice and why she loves…
Early detection of mesenteric ischemia increases treatment options and the possibility of a full recovery, but the condition’s rarity may lead to a delay in diagnosis while more common causes of abdominal pain are explored. An article in the February 2018 issue of Critical Care Nurse (CCN) aims to heighten nurses’ knowledge of mesenteric ischemia and infarction (MI), which are infrequent but…
Although the incidence of appendicitis in the United States has been in decline for many years, the condition still affects approximately seven percent of Americans annually. A research team at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences, found that there is evidence to suggest that a colonoscopy can “prompt” appendicitis up to one week after the procedure, in at least certain patients.
‘Ultrasound plays a key role in diagnosis and monitoring of treatment in the A&E department,’ emphasises Professor Joseph Osterwalder, Medical Director of the Cantonal Hospital in Appenzell, Switzerland. ‘I cannot imagine emergency medicine without ultrasound.’
New criteria used as an initial screening tool in the emergency department need to be re-evaluated, a specialised surgeon highlighted in a dedicated talk during the Spanish national congress of surgery this November.
In Western society, access to high quality medical treatment is frequently taken for granted. Elsewhere, the reality is that many less developed countries struggle to provide healthcare services. Zanzibar has taken a unique approach to resolving this issue, working closely with the charity Health Improvement Project Zanzibar (HIPZ) to improve its hospital services. Dr Ru MacDonagh, founder of…
The number of radiological accident and emergency examinations had doubled within five years because many accident and emergency (A&E) patients are given CT scans even before having a comprehensive clinical examination. Report: Michael Krassnitzer
Although space limitations have reduced the number of live scanning sessions at past World Ultrasound Congresses, this year greater space at the Vienna venue has enabled the organisation of 51 live scanning sessions by Dr Christian Aiginger, consultant internist at the St. Josef Hospital Vienna Auhof, with Dr Helmut Prosch, Consultant at the Department of General Radiology and Paediatric…
Pin-sharp outlines instead of a flurry of speckles, three-dimensional bodies instead of two-dimensional cross sections: Modern ultrasound scanners now deliver images of a quality that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. This new generation scanners have made ultrasound diagnostics more reliable, reproducible and much easier to use for doctors
Ethianum Heidelberg is going over to total paperless communication. The value is evident in the first step in new patient admissions. For their online medical history the hospital is using LifeSensor from InterComponentWare (ICW).
At Mannheim University Medical Centre five MR units are currently installed - the Magnetom Tim Trio, 2 x Magnetom Avanto, Magnetom Sonata and the new Magnetom Skyra, which was presented at the RSNA 2009 and is equipped with completely new software.
For the past 30 years, in the former USSR and Russia, laser medicine has been actively developed and regular annual conferences have opened new avenues for its use by the country's doctors.
A growing number of Dutch hospital doctors now favour ultrasound (US) over CT scans to detect appendicitis in children. This trend has re-opened the US v. CT debate over which diagnostic method is more effective, cost-effective and safest for a child's longer-term health needs.
Most professionals will recognise issues that call for consideration in a wider context, a context that does not merely consider strictly professional issues, i.e. issues based upon facts and figures, write Johannes Gossner MD and Joerg Larsen MD FRCR, of the Institute for Roentgendiagnostics, Braunschweig Teaching Hospitals, Germany.
Over the last three decades CT has become a premier diagnostic tool for the evaluation of the acute patient. Over the past ten years in Israel, we have seen an overwhelming increase in the volume of CT examinations in the emergency department (ED).
There is a need for a national institue to co-ordinate education and certification in minimally surgery.
Surgeons Sergey V Stonogin, specialist in infectious cases, Eugeny V Dvorovenko, Head of Emergency Surgery, and Vladimir A Chaplin, endoscopy specialist - report on results from their study to assess the most effective, safe combination of antibiotics to treat patients with acute appendicitis complicated by chickenpox
Digital dictation devices can read a patient's data, automatically assign information to the relevant report and interpret human speech into a text version. Armin Scheuer reports