A Retained Lens Fragment Induced Anterior Uveitis and Corneal Edema 15 Years after Cataract Surgery

A 60-year-old male was referred to the ophthalmologic clinic with aggravated anterior uveitis and corneal edema despite the use of topical and systemic steroids. He had undergone cataract surgery in both eyes 15 years previous. Slit lamp examinations revealed a retained lens fragment in the inferior angle of the anterior chamber, with severe corneal edema and mild anterior uveitis. The corneal edema and uveitis subsided following surgical extraction of the lens fragment. That a retained lens fragment caused symptomatic anterior uveitis with corneal edema 15 years after an uneventful cataract surgery is unique. A retained lens fragment should be considered as one of the causes of anterior uveitis in a pseudophakic patient

Bilateral Endophthalmitis as the Initial Presentation of Bacterial Meningitis

To report a case of bilateral endophthalmitis as the initial presentation of bacterial meningitis in a young, immunocompetent Korean patient. A 35-year-old female with a one day history of bilateral swollen eyes, visual disturbance, headache, petechial skin rash, and nausea visited our clinic. She was diagnosed as having endogenous endophthalmitis associated with bacterial meningitis. Intravenous broad spectrum antibiotic therapy was initiated with cefotaxime 3 g and ubacillin 3 g, four times daily. Intravitreal antibiotic (vancomycin 1 mg/0.1 mL and ceftazidime 2 mg/0.1 mL) injections were performed in both eyes. Two weeks post presentation, the best corrected visual acuity in both eyes improved to 0.7, and inflammation of the anterior chamber and vitreous cavity was decreased. We recommend that when endogenous endophthalmitis is suspected along with meningitis, or if it is known to be present, intravitreal and intravenous antibiotics should be promptly administered to preserve vision

Risk factors for alcohol and other drug use by healthcare professionals

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Given the increasingly stressful environment due to manpower shortages in the healthcare system in general, substance induced impairment among some healthcare professions is anticipated to grow. Though recent studies suggest that the prevalence of substance abuse is no higher in healthcare professionals (HPs) than the general population, given the responsibility to the public, any impairment could place the public at increased risk for errors. Few studies have ever reported predictors or risk factors for alcohol and other drug use (AOD) across a sample of HPs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study used a cross-sectional, descriptive self-report survey in a small northeastern state. A 7-page survey was mailed to a stratified random sample of 697 dentists, nurses, pharmacists and physicians registered in a northeastern state. The main outcome measures were demographic characteristics, lifetime, past year and past month prevalence of AOD use, the frequency of use, drug related dysfunctions, drug misuse and abuse potential. Six contacts during the summer of 2002 resulted in a 68.7% response rate (479/697).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Risk factors contributing to any reported past year AOD use, as well as significant (defined as the amount of AOD use by the top 25% of respondents) past year AOD use by HPs were examined using logistic regression. Risk factors of any self-reported past year AOD use included moderate or more frequency of alcohol use, being in situations when offered AODs, feeling immune to the addictive effects of drugs (pharmaceutical invincibility) and socializing with substance abusers. Risk factors of significant past year AOD use were HPs with younger licensees, a moderate pattern of alcohol use and not socializing with substance abusers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>National and state organizations need to develop policies that focus on prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of alcohol and other drug-using healthcare professionals. The results of this study may help to delineate the characteristics of HPs abusing drugs, leading to the development of more effective policies designed to protect the public, and move toward more tailored and effective intervention strategies for HPs.</p

Push/Pull

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library

Eyes on the Street: Los Angeles Police Department Surveillance, Policing, and Crime in Black South Central from William Parker to Rodney King

This dissertation explores the development, shortcomings, contingencies, and responses to Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) surveillance in black South Central from the beginning of Chief William H. Parker’s term in 1950 until the L.A. Riots in 1992. It argues that surveillance was employed in South Central as a means of black criminalization and social control but was always contested by the South Central community and Los Angeles left. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, surveillance scholarship has interrogated the rise of mass surveillance and the surveillance state. However, there have been far-fewer examinations of local police surveillance, despite important work on mass incarceration, criminal justice reform, and modern American policing in recent years. This dissertation seeks to remedy this absence by examining local LAPD surveillance and contemporaneous black community resistance in South Central Los Angeles during the postwar era. The vast criminalization of black South Central residents was accomplished by a two-pillar system of surveillance established during the professionalism and reform era under Chief Parker. The first pillar was an expansive, statistics-based bureaucracy that stored and analyzed crime, arrest, and demographic statistics. The second pillar consisted of physical patrols that gathered and created those statistics by aggressively policing black neighborhoods. This dual-pillar system grew and changed over time as county, state and federal laws and criminal justice reforms extended the bureaucratic reach of LAPD surveillance far beyond the municipal boundaries of Los Angeles. These efforts were further bolstered by the War on Crime under President Lyndon Johnson and the War on Drugs under President Ronald Reagan. By the 1980s and under the guise of anti-drug and anti-gang “crime control,” LAPD task forces broadened the department’s criminalization efforts by arresting black residents for banal “offenses” like wearing a pager or standing on a corner, inducting them into capacious gang databases that shackled residents with the stain of criminality, often for life. In response to these interdictions and expanding surveillance capabilities, the South Central black community formed police watchdog groups like the Temporary Alliance of Local Organizations (TALO) and the Community Alert Patrol (CAP) to sousveille the LAPD’s actions in black neighborhoods. At the same time, leftist organizations like the ACLU of Southern California attempted to establish oversight over the department through the formation of a police review board and modifications to the City Charter. While these reforms and challenges to police hegemony were limited and, in some cases, failures, they nevertheless contested the shifting power relations between the LAPD and the citizens they were sworn to protect

Jump Cut

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library

Khazeri Yerazhshtutyun

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library