Postgraduate medicine
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Postgraduate medicine · Aug 1981
Bites and stings of uncommon arthropods. 2. Reduviids, fire ants, puss caterpillars, and scorpions.
Arthropod bites and stings may cause intense pain, sometimes out of proportion to the size of the lesion. Severe reactions may arise from prior exposure and buildup of antibodies. Diagnosis often can be made from the clinical presentation if the physician is familiar with the effects of the uncommon bites and stings. Some uncommon bites, such as those of reduviids, can be treated symptomatically, but others, such as those of poisonous scorpions, call for antivenin therapy.
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Postgraduate medicine · Jul 1981
Case ReportsSecondhand cigarette smoke as a cause of chronic carbon monoxide poisoning.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning in a nonsmoking patient continued for several years until her husband stopped smoking cigarettes near her. Carbon monoxide poisoning should be considered in non-smokers when characteristic toxic symptoms occur (ie, lethargy, irritability, headache, blurred vision, slowed reaction time, and decreased concentration). Toxicity may develop simply from breathing second-hand smoke.
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Diagnosis of lumbar hernia poses difficulties because of the gastrointestinal, genitourinary, or musculoskeletal symptoms with which it may present. Lumbar hernia, though uncommon, should be considered in the differential diagnosis of back pain and upper quadrant subchondral abdominal masses.
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Cerebral vasospasm is a major cause of morbidity and mortality following aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. With improvement in surgical techniques and perioperative care, the results in neurologically intact patients are generally satisfactory. However, cerebral vasospasm remains a major problem in the successful management of neurologically deteriorating patients. Until the pathophysiology of cerebral vasospasm is clarified, a reliable treatment regimen will remain elusive and the overall outlook for patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage will remain limited.