"Psychic Degenerate": Why G. Was Interned

Abstract This chapter explains how homosexuality was pathologised: to do this, it traces the origins of the "effeminate male" stereotype, explaining how the socio-cultural concept of degeneration was extended to include "sexual inversion". Through the doctors' words, G.'s biography starts to take shape and it becomes clear how it matched the "degenerate" and "effeminate pederast" stereotypical description

Diversity and ethics in trauma and acute care surgery teams: results from an international survey

Background Investigating the context of trauma and acute care surgery, the article aims at understanding the factors that can enhance some ethical aspects, namely the importance of patient consent, the perceptiveness of the ethical role of the trauma leader, and the perceived importance of ethics as an educational subject. Methods The article employs an international questionnaire promoted by the World Society of Emergency Surgery. Results Through the analysis of 402 fully filled questionnaires by surgeons from 72 different countries, the three main ethical topics are investigated through the lens of gender, membership of an academic or non-academic institution, an official trauma team, and a diverse group. In general terms, results highlight greater attention paid by surgeons belonging to academic institutions, official trauma teams, and diverse groups. Conclusions Our results underline that some organizational factors (e.g., the fact that the team belongs to a university context or is more diverse) might lead to the development of a higher sensibility on ethical matters. Embracing cultural diversity forces trauma teams to deal with different mindsets. Organizations should, therefore, consider those elements in defining their organizational procedures. Level of evidence Trauma and acute care teams work under tremendous pressure and complex circumstances, with their members needing to make ethical decisions quickly. The international survey allowed to shed light on how team assembly decisions might represent an opportunity to coordinate team member actions and increase performance

Antiarrhythmic or time bomb? A severe iatrogenic bradyarrhythmia

We report a case of severe bradyarrythmia with hypotension and extremely large QRS due to proarrhythmic effect of drug combination (amiodarone following infusion of propafenone) for the conversion of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation (PAF) in a 74 year old woman. The authors focus on the important side effects and complications due to aggressive treatment of not life-threatening arrhythmias, such as PAF without haemodinamic compromise in older patients. At conclusion “primum non nocere“

Giant negative T-wave: always coronary artery disease?

CLINICAL CASE We describe a 82 years old patient with giant negative T waves in anterior and inferior leads at electrocardiogram (ECG) after pace-maker (PM) implantation because of total atrioventricular block, and we discuss about different cause of negative T waves at ECG. CONCLUSIONS Particularly, we remark that, after a long period of PM stimulation, a negative T waves at ECG without myocardial ischemia, defined as “electrical memory”, may appear if a spontaneous sinus rhythm occurs. The same phenomena is present in patients affected by intermittent left bundle-branch block