South African medical journal = Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir geneeskunde
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To audit indications for and practice (in terms of training/qualification) of definitive airway management compared with current UK practices. ⋯ The most common indication for intubation was a Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) of less than 8, typically in the polytrauma patient with suspected head injury due to MVA. Emergency doctors managed 100% of definitive airway in-hospital, and RSI was the favoured method. This differs greatly from the UK where non-anaesthetists only perform between 31% and 56% of trauma intubations, with the rest performed by anaesthetists. Outcome was, however, similar to that described in the literature.
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To monitor the success of an inpatient palliative care unit combining private and state patients, and accessible to patients with cancer and AIDS. ⋯ The profile of terminally ill patients with cancer and AIDS was initially similar in terms of death rate. In the first 3 months 38% of cancer patients and 33% of AIDS patients died. In the following 2 months the death rate was 33% for cancer patients and 19% for AIDS patients. While the numbers of patients are small and only an indication of trend, the AIDS death rate seems to be dropping. This may be because ARV treatment is being introduced earlier, or because the role of palliative care in the treatment of AIDS patients is gaining recognition and introduction of this form of treatment is having a beneficial effect on outcome. In this hospital it is now accepted that AIDS patients developing symptoms on treatment will benefit from admission to a palliative care ward. This intervention may well improve the outcome in stage 4 AIDS. The duration of stay in the ward is longer for AIDS patients, and it appears that AIDS patients who survive will need a longer stay in the palliative care unit than cancer patients if outcome is to improve.