White phosphorus burn. Case report

White phosphorus bum is a special subtype of chemical bums, rarely encountered and is very limited in literature. Case Presentation On January 11, 2009, an 18-year-old male was transferred to the Emergency room (ER), due to exposure to military attack with White Phosphorus shell, with multiple scattered patches of full thickness bum, surrounded by sloughed tissue, involving 30% of his body surface area, distributed in both upper and lower limbs and right shoulder, a clinical diagnosis of white phosphoms bum was made. Airway was secured, without signs of inhalation bums; resuscitation fluid was initiated, irrigation with diluted sodium bicarbonate solution and wet dressing were done. In the Bum Unit, White smoke was noticed coming up from the wounds which became deeper, with extensive necrotic tissue, apparent localized injuries weren’t correlated with underlying severe deep destruction. In the operation room, debridement and excision for dead tissues and removing phosphoms particles was accomplished, transferred to ICU for monitoring of vital signs, electrolyte disturbance and ECG changes where he was managed accordingly. After 8 days of hospitalization, the patient was relatively well, and discharged without manifestations of systemic complication of white phosphoms bum. White phosphoms is transparent combustible substance, associated with extensive full thickness bum injury with delayed wound healing. In our case, the management include irrigation by diluted sodium bicarbonate solution at ER, whereas, only water have been proved to prevent deaths , early excision and massive debridement of particles was accomplished, electrolyte disturbance was noticed as a complication

Inpatient management of community-acquired pneumonia at the European Gaza Hospital: a clinical audit

Background Disease severity scores such as CURB-65 are often used to guide the management of patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Early and adequate empirical antibiotic treatment reduces mortality. The aim of this study was to examine the severity assessment and management of patients presenting with community-acquired pneumonia at the European Gaza Hospital in the Gaza Strip and to compare this to the best available evidence. Methods Medical records of all patients admitted to the European Gaza Hospital with a diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia between Dec 1, 2015, and March 31, 2016, were reviewed retrospectively. Clinical practice was compared with recommendations for severity assessment and the management of community-acquired pneumonia, as reported in guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the American Thoracic Society

Interventions for treating phosphorus burns

Background Phosphorus burns are rarely encountered in usual clinical practice and occur mostly in military and industrial settings. However, these burns can be fatal, even with minimal burn area, and are often associated with prolonged hospitalisation. Objectives To summarise the evidence of effects (beneficial and harmful) of all interventions for treating people with phosphorus burns

The relation between health research output and burden of disease in Palestine: a systematic review

Background Highest priority should be given to research on conditions responsible for the greatest disease burden. This is particularly important in settings where resources are scarce. The aim of this study was to assess the association between research output and disease burden in the occupied Palestinian territory and to identify the conditions that are under-investigated or over-investigated, if any. Methods We searched PubMed and Scopus for reports of original research relevant to human health or health care that was authored by researchers affiliated with Palestinian institutions and published between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 31, 2015. We categorised the health condition studied in included articles using the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) taxonomy. Data about the burden of disease (percentage of deaths and disability-adjusted life-years [DALYs]) were obtained from the Palestine profile in the GBD study. We

A comparison between health research output and burden of disease in Arab countries: evidence from Palestine

Research conducted on conditions responsible for the greatest disease burden should be given the highest priority, particularly in resource-limited settings. The present study aimed to assess the research output in relation to disease burden in Palestine and to identify the conditions which are under- or over-investigated, if any. We searched PubMed and Scopus for reports of original research relevant to human health or healthcare authored by researchers affiliated with Palestinian institutions and published between January 2000 and December 2015. We categorised the condition studied in included articles using the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) taxonomy. Data regarding burden of disease (percentage of deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)) was obtained from the Palestine profile in the GBD study. We examined the degree of discordance between the observed number of published articles for each disease/condition with the expected number based on the proportion of disease burden of that disease/condition. Our search identified 2469 potentially relevant records, from which 1650 were excluded following the screening of titles and abstracts. Of the remaining 819 full-text articles, we included 511 in our review. Communicable (infectious) diseases (n = 103; 20%) was the condition with the highest number of published studies. However, cancer (n = 15; 3%) and chronic respiratory diseases (n = 15; 3%) were the conditions with the lowest number of published studies. Research output was poorly associated with disease burden, irrespective of whether it was measured in terms of DALYs (rho = −0.116, P = 0.7) or death (rho = 0

The quality of medical and public health research from Palestinian institutions: a survey-based study

Background There has been an increase in the quantity of health research from the occupied Palestinian territory in the past decade but no assessment of the quality. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of reports of Palestinian health research and factors associated with it. Methods We searched MEDLINE and Scopus for reports of original research relevant to human health or health care authored by researchers affiliated with Palestinian institutions and published between Jan 1, 2000, and Aug 30, 2015. We used international guidelines to assess report quality, classifying as adequate those with at least 50% of items completely addressed. Findings Of 2383 reports identified, 497 met our inclusion criteria. 264 (55%) reports were published after 2010, 354 (71%) first authors were affiliated with Palestinian institutions, and 261 (53%) reports had co-authors from outside the occupied Palestinian territory. 342