Dan Med Bull
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Elective surgical repair of an inguinal or femoral hernia is one of the most common surgical procedures. The treatment, however, presents several challenges regarding anaesthesia for the procedure, the postoperative analgesic therapy and convalescence, as well as planning of the procedure. Local, general, and regional anaesthesia are all used for hernia repair, but to different degrees, primarily depending on traditions and whether the institution has specific interest in hernia surgery. ⋯ Despite this, the fraction of patients operated in a day-case surgical set-up varies from 6% in France to 83% in US, and in Denmark 60% of patients have their hernia repair as a day-case procedure. A day-case hernia surgery service should be organised with standardised patient records, including descriptions of surgery performed as well as letters of discharge for the general practitioner. If clinical data are stored electronically, the basis is created for valuable clinical databases like the one behind the present thesis, and they can be used both for scientific purposes and for quality control and improvement.
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Low back pain has been associated with an increased risk of several diseases and with poor general health. Also low birth weight has been associated with an increased susceptibility to various diseases as well as with poor general health. Thus, low birth weight could be a common factor--indicating a general frailty with an increased risk of both low back pain and overall morbidity. To our knowledge, the association between low back pain and birth weight has not previously been investigated. This study investigates the correlation between birth characteristics and low back pain in adolescence. ⋯ There is a statistically significant association between high birth weight and the risk of developing low back pain in males but not in females. Our results do not indicate that frailty at birth increases the risk of low back pain in adolescence.
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Normal function of the hepatic low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor is obligate for normal levels of plasma LDL cholesterol. The LDL receptor regulates the concentration of plasma LDL cholesterol by internalizing apolipoprotein B-100- and apolipoprotein E-containing lipoproteins by receptor-mediated endocytosis. Mutations in the gene encoding the LDL receptor protein give rise to one of the most common classical autosomal dominant inherited disorders in man, familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). ⋯ Familial defective apolipoprotein B (FDB) caused by the R3500Q apolipoprotein B gene mutation may mimic FH but the clinical course, however, is often milder than that seen in patients with LDL receptor gene mutations. A newly discovered third major locus at chromosome 1 may also be of future diagnostic importance although the exact gene remains to be identified. The overall molecular genetic knowledge obtained about FH in Denmark forms the basis for the implementation and use of molecular genetic diagnostics of FH in daily clinical practice.