Irish journal of medical science
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Trauma Assessment Clinics (TAC) were pioneered by the Glasgow Royal Infirmary Group. Patients deemed for non-operative management are referred to the TAC for review by an orthopaedic consultant with multidisciplinary team (MDT) support. Connolly Hospital launched a TAC on 11 September 2018. ⋯ Following the introduction of the TAC, we noted a marked reduction in fracture clinic attendances. Our outcomes were consistent with results from other units. We established two injection clinics as a direct result of the time saved from the TAC. It has proven to be of benefit to both the trauma and elective patients in our institution.
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Dr Séamus Mac Suibhne (Sweeney) (1978-2019) was a widely admired psychiatrist, writer and scholar whose contributions ranged from psychiatric care to Greek philosophy, and from medical education to the application of new technologies in educational and clinical settings. Séamus wrote extensively on these and many other themes in the professional and popular literature. In his clinical work, Séamus was a compassionate doctor, effective team-worker and skilled manager. ⋯ Philosophy was, perhaps, his greatest intellectual passion and he spoke and wrote extensively on themes linking philosophy with clinical care, the history of psychiatry and reflective practice in medicine. Séamus wrote and co-wrote on a range of other topics including psychiatric liaison with primary care, 'vampirism' as a mental illness, translation and interpretation in psychiatry, synaesthesia, 'new' mental illnesses such as solastalgia and hubris syndrome, bibliotherapy, the work of Nicholas Culpeper (a seventeenth-century English physician) and mental illness among psychiatrists. Séamus Mac Suibhne is deeply missed in Irish psychiatry, but his many contributions bear elegant, lasting testament to a dedicated family man, a gifted doctor and an enquiring, often brilliant mind.
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Review Case Reports
Transient derangements in Hepatitis B serology in patients post-intravenous immunoglobulin therapy-a case-based review.
Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is a commonly utilized therapy in multiple medical subspecialities, indicated for the management of various primary and secondary immunodeficiency states and autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. A lack of awareness exists among clinicians regarding the serological downstream effects of its use. An observed phenomenon post-IVIg is the passive transfer of antibodies from the product which can lead to transiently positive hepatitis B serology in recipients. ⋯ Three patients encountered in the hematology department of a tertiary referral hospital developed spurious hepatitis B serology after administration of IVIg, whose cases are briefly outlined here. These cases highlight the need for routine pre-treatment viral screening and emphasize the importance of clinicians recognizing such potentially confounding results. This is of particular relevance to the sizeable subset of hematology patients who are planned for future immunomodulatory treatment (such as rituximab), where previous hepatitis B infection can often be a barrier to timely treatment.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effect of spinal manipulation on brain neurometabolites in chronic nonspecific low back pain patients: a randomized clinical trial.
In patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain (NCLBP), brain function changes due to the neuroplastic changes in different regions. ⋯ In the patient with low back pain, spinal manipulation affects the central nervous system and changes the brain metabolites. Consequently, pain and functional disability are reduced.