The Central African journal of medicine
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Meralgia paresthetica (Bernhart-Roth Syndrome) is characterised by pain, burning, or tingling paresthesias, and decreased touch and pain sensation on the anterolateral aspect of the thigh. It is due to neuropathy of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN). Conservative treatment is usually successful in relieving the symptoms in most of the patients. ⋯ Although neurolysis with transposition is the most common procedure, we preferred neurectomy with excision of a portion of the LFCN for its very low recurrence rate as opposed to neurolysis. The area of anesthesia generated by this procedure in the distribution of the LFCN tends to shrink with time. Moreover, this pathology, to our knowledge, has not been reported much in the African literature.
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Forty two cases of acute poisoning were studied retrospectively over a two year period (1990 to 1991, inclusive) in the paediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU), at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare. This formed 8.6 pc of the total admissions into the unit over the same period. The four commonest types of poisons were organophosphates, 38.1 pc; paraffin, 26.2 pc; traditional medicines (muti), 14.3 pc and miscellaneous drugs, such as chloroquine, aspirin, chloropromazine, diazepam and gama-benzene, 9.5 pc. ⋯ Eighty eight pc of all admissions were children below the age of five years. The mortality rate in this series was 21 pc. Compared to the overall mortality rate of all ICU admissions of 30.9 pc over the same period, death due to acute poisoning was 1.8 pc of all ICU deaths.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of arm circumference against standard anthropometric indices using data from a high density town near Harare, Zimbabwe.
In a limited controlled sample, the performance of the middle upper arm circumference (MUAC) was compared to those of standard indices (weight for age, height for age and weight for height), using 90 children aged one to four years living in a high density town near Harare, Zimbabwe. Using a cut off point of 15,5 cm, the MUAC performed best in relation to the weight for age (sensitivity 66,7 pc (95 pc confidence interval (CI) 53,3-80,0 pc), specificity 76,2 pc (95 pc CI 61,7-80,5 pc)) than to any other standard index. Nevertheless, this performance was unsatisfactory because about 30 in every 100 (28,9 pc) children would have been inaccurately identified as healthy or diseased. Although we do not have evidence from the present study to recommend the use of the MUAC in identifying children who are malnourished and living in similar high density areas, the MUAC may be applicable to children living in areas of higher prevalence of malnutrition.