Singap Med J
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Comparative Study
A comparison of fetal biparietal diameter measurements between local Chinese and Caucasian populations.
Since the advent of ultrasound, various workers have published nomograms of the fetal biparietal diameters (BPD). In the Singapore General Hospital, the nomogram established by Campbell and Newman was adopted initially for our multi-racial society. ⋯ The reasons for the difference remain speculative. The presence of the statistical difference between the two means and the 2 standard errors establishes the need for constructing nomograms for our own local reference.
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Comparative Study
Shivering during regional anaesthesia and its control with pethidine.
Ninety-seven consecutive patients who underwent four different types of regional anaesthesia such as lumbar epidural, spinal, caudal and brachial blocks were studied for their incidence of shivering. Fifty percent of patients who received epidural anaesthesia shivered compared to 19% of patients who received either spinal or caudal anaesthesia. None of the patients who had brachial block shivered. Intravenous injection of 25 mg pethidine would stop shivering in almost all patients who shivered during regional blocks.
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One hundred and fourteen patients with scabies admitted to a dermatological ward between 1982 and 1989 were studied retrospectively. There was a change in the epidemiological pattern over the eight-year period. We noticed an increase of two to three fold in the incidence of in-patients with scabies. ⋯ There was also a change in the racial distribution of scabies from a Malay predominance to a Chinese predominance. We also noticed a change in the residential status of these patients; more patients admitted towards the end of the decade came from institutional homes. The changing epidemiological pattern brought with it new problems both in diagnosis and in the prevention of scabies.
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A study of 233 neonatal deaths out of 30910 livebirths over an 8 year period in the Toa Payoh Hospital is done. The Hospital has since ceased providing obstetric and neonatal intensive services from April 1990 due to restructuring of hospital care. The Neonatal Mortality Rates (NNMR) from 1982-1989 ranged from 6.52 to 9.55 and there was no significant fall in trend (p = 0.13). ⋯ Improvement in VLBW and RDS management has not contributed to a significant decline in NNMR. It is observed that more VLBW babies were born during this 8 year period (p = 0.01) especially so in the less than 1000 gm group (p = 0.0005) and the survival of VLBW babies has improved (45.5% to 75.8% alive) as a result of advances in neonatal intensive care. The reasons for increase in incidence of VLBW births in the past few years are not known.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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This paper is a retrospective review of arthroscopic abrasion arthroplasty plus debridement. This procedure was performed on 52 knees in 44 patients during the period January 1985 to June 1987 in the Sinagpore General Hospital. Follow-up period ranged from 3 to 27 months. ⋯ There was improvement in 74% of the patients with normal alignment. Results were compared with those in world literature. Although results are encouraging, further research is required to reduce the proportion of patients with unsatisfactory results.