Patterns of injury and violence in Yaoundé Cameroon: an analysis of hospital data.

BackgroundInjuries are quickly becoming a leading cause of death globally, disproportionately affecting sub-Saharan Africa, where reports on the epidemiology of injuries are extremely limited. Reports on the patterns and frequency of injuries are available from Cameroon are also scarce. This study explores the patterns of trauma seen at the emergency ward of the busiest trauma center in Cameroon's capital city.Materials and methodsAdministrative records from January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007, were retrospectively reviewed; information on age, gender, mechanism of injury, and outcome was abstracted for all trauma patients presenting to the emergency ward. Univariate analysis was performed to assess patterns of injuries in terms of mechanism, date, age, and gender. Bivariate analysis was used to explore potential relationships between demographic variables and mechanism of injury.ResultsA total of 6,234 injured people were seen at the Central Hospital of Yaoundé's emergency ward during the year 2007. Males comprised 71% of those injured, and the mean age of injured patients was 29 years (SD = 14.9). Nearly 60% of the injuries were due to road traffic accidents, 46% of which involved a pedestrian. Intentional injuries were the second most common mechanism of injury (22.5%), 55% of which involved unarmed assault. Patients injured in falls were more likely to be admitted to the hospital (p < 0.001), whereas patients suffering intentional injuries and bites were less likely to be hospitalized (p < 0.001). Males were significantly more likely to be admitted than females (p < 0.001)DiscussionPatterns in terms of age, gender, and mechanism of injury are similar to reports from other countries from the same geographic region, but the magnitude of cases reported is high for a single institution in an African city the size of Yaoundé. As the burden of disease is predicted to increase dramatically in sub-Saharan Africa, immediate efforts in prevention and treatment in Cameroon are strongly warranted

Computationally Enhanced Medical Decision Support for Pancreatic Cancer

This project investigated and applied computational techniques to enlarge a pancreatic cancer database and to enhance the medical decision-making process supported by this database. The database was previously developed by the Department of Surgical Oncology of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in conjunction with the Department of Computer Science at WPI. We substantially increased the number of patients included in the database, and conducted data mining experiments. These experiments compared the accuracies of predictions made by medical doctors and by data mining methods for two separate patient outcomes: tumor malignancy and survival time after surgery. The results of our experiments show that data mining techniques can be used to enhance the quality of medical decisions

Endoscopy

Endoscopy is a fast moving field, and new techniques are continuously emerging. In recent decades, endoscopy has evolved and branched out from a diagnostic modality to enhanced video and computer assisting imaging with impressive interventional capabilities. The modern endoscopy has seen advances not only in types of endoscopes available, but also in types of interventions amenable to the endoscopic approach. To date, there are a lot more developments that are being trialed. Modern endoscopic equipment provides physicians with the benefit of many technical advances. Endoscopy is an effective and safe procedure even in special populations including pediatric patients and renal transplant patients. It serves as the tool for diagnosis and therapeutic interventions of many organs including gastrointestinal tract, head and neck, urinary tract and others

Therapeutic Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Endoscopy has had a big role in the development of modern gastroenterology. Modern endoscopy will certainly be more therapeutic. It started with endoscopic hemostasis and polipectomy, than beginning of the 1970's with the advent of endoscopic sphincterotomy extended to biliopancreatic pathology and has a huge impact in this difficult pathology. Plastic stents made the first steps in endoscopic palliation of neoplastic jaundice, metallic stents, covered or uncovered are better for biliary palliation and can be used also for palliation neoplastic obstruction at different levels of the digestive tube. Resection of digestive tumors has evolved now to sub-mucosal resection, looking to have one-piece complete resection. Interventional endoscopy is now very complex and takes a lot of time for endoscopists to learn properly these techniques. This book is a very good up-to-date overview of new techniques of interventional endoscopy for those who want to learn or develop their knowledges in this field

RECENT ADVANCES IN MOLECULAR MEDICINE AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

ABSTRACT BOO