Articles: surgery.
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A maternal mortality audit was introduced in the Midlands Province (Zimbabwe) in order to identify which avoidable factors were involved most frequently. During the two-year study period, the maternal mortality rate was 137 per 100,000 total births. ⋯ An avoidable factor was identified among 87% of these deaths involving the health system in 57% of the cases and the patient in 33%. Access to the health facilities and transport problems only played a minor role.
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Ugeskrift for laeger · Jul 1989
[Mastectomy incisions and biopsy technics in view of subsequent reconstructive surgery in breast cancer].
Patients are referred to departments for plastic surgery increasingly frequently for breast reconstruction following mastectomy for cancer of the breast. Successful results depend greatly on the primary mastectomy carried out by surgeons without experience in reconstruction. It is particularly important that the incisions are suitably placed so that the final result can be satisfactory. ⋯ In four patients, the prosthesis had to be renewed on account of rupture during the subsequent years. Guidelines for placing the incisions at the primary mastectomy are suggested to facilitate successful reconstruction. Finally, a suitable biopsy technique is described.
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In the past the view has often been expressed that children are less sensitive to pain than adults as a result of the assumption that their nervous system is not as well developed. According to this theory, newborns were not supposed to feel pain at all, and for this reason minor surgery was often performed with inadequate anesthesia. Evidence in the more recent literature and the regular choice of "pain in children" as a topic for congresses exemplify the more and more widespread belief that children of all ages can feel pain and, relative to their developmental stage, suffer accordingly. ⋯ As cognition develops further, the patient's own concept of health and sickness changes, as does the ability to express feelings of pain. In the pathogenesis of pain in children, the dominant types are nociceptor pain (e.g., as a result of trauma or infection) and pain resulting from malfunction (e.g., physical malposition, migraine), whereas nervous pain occurs less frequently. Pediatricians should pay particular attention to the treatment of acute and chronic pain in children.