A Comparison of Dissection-method and Diathermy Tonsillectomies

Objective: To compare the dissection and diathermy methds of tonsillectomy and evaluate their advantages and disadvantages during surgery and convalescence.Methods and Setting: Patients who had tonsillectomy at Aga Khan University Hospital, between January 1994-December 1997.Results: Four year retrospective analysis was done of 200 patients who underwent tonsillectomy by either electrocautery or dissection method. One hundred and eleven underwent tonsillectomy by electrocautery and the other 79 had their tonsils removed by dissection-method and 2 had a combination of both. The average intra­operative blood loss was 10 ml with cautery and 65 ml with dissection method. The average operative time was 15.7 minutes with cautery and 26.9 minutes for dissection. We found higher amounts of blood loss and intra­operative time with dissection method than electrocautery. In comparing diathermy dissection method tonsillectomies, there was marked difference between two, in pen-operative blood loss and operative time.Conclusion: Although post-operative bleeding, pain and infection are complications of both techniques and in our study their incidence in similar in both, but intra-operative blood loss and time are two important factors,technique is a more effective technique in our set up based on which we can conclude that electrocauter

Comparison of the Postprocedural Quality of Life between Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Systematic Review

The treatment of choice between coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has remained unclear. Considering quality of life (QOL) increases life expectancy, we believe QOL should be important in determining the optimum treatment. Thus the objective of this review was to illustrate the comparative effects of CABG and PCI on postprocedural QOL. Methods. We searched PubMed (Medline) and Embase from inception of the databases to May 2014 using "PCI versus CABG quality of life", "Percutaneous Coronary intervention versus Coronary artery bypass graft surgery Quality of life", "PCI versus CABG health status", "Angioplasty versus CABG", "Percutaneous coronary intervention versus coronary artery bypass surgery health status", and different combinations of the above terms. 447 articles were found. After applying strict exclusion criteria, we included 13 studies in this review. Results. From the 9 studies that compared QOL scores at 6 months after procedure, 5 studies reported CABG to be superior. From the 10 studies that compared QOL among patients at 1 year after procedure, 9 reported CABG to be superior. Conclusion. It can be established that CABG is superior to PCI in improving patient's QOL with respect to all scales used to determine quality of life

Comparison of the Postprocedural Quality of Life between Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Systematic Review

The treatment of choice between coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has remained unclear. Considering quality of life (QOL) increases life expectancy, we believe QOL should be important in determining the optimum treatment. Thus the objective of this review was to illustrate the comparative effects of CABG and PCI on postprocedural QOL. Methods. We searched PubMed (Medline) and Embase from inception of the databases to May 2014 using “PCI versus CABG quality of life”, “Percutaneous Coronary intervention versus Coronary artery bypass graft surgery Quality of life”, “PCI versus CABG health status”, “Angioplasty versus CABG”, “Percutaneous coronary intervention versus coronary artery bypass surgery health status”, and different combinations of the above terms. 447 articles were found. After applying strict exclusion criteria, we included 13 studies in this review. Results. From the 9 studies that compared QOL scores at 6 months after procedure, 5 studies reported CABG to be superior. From the 10 studies that compared QOL among patients at 1 year after procedure, 9 reported CABG to be superior. Conclusion. It can be established that CABG is superior to PCI in improving patient’s QOL with respect to all scales used to determine quality of life

Does left atrial volume affect exercise capacity of heart transplant recipients?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Heart transplant (HT) recipients demonstrate limited exercise capacity compared to normal patients, very likely for multiple reasons. In this study we hypothesized that left atrial volume (LAV), which is known to predict exercise capacity in patients with various cardiac pathologies including heart failure and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is associated with limited exercise capacity of HT recipients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed 50 patients [age 57 ±2 (SEM), 12 females] who had a post-HT echocardiography and cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX) within 9 weeks time at clinic follow up. The change in LAV (ΔLAV) was also computed as the difference in LAV from the preceding one-year to the study echocardiogram. Correlations among the measured parameters were assessed with a Pearson's correlation analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>LAV (n = 50) and ΔLAV (n = 40) indexed to body surface area were 40.6 ± 11.5 ml·m^-2and 1.9 ± 8.5 ml·m^-2·year^-1, data are mean ± SD, respectively. Indexed LAV and ΔLAV were both significantly correlated with the ventilatory efficiency, assessed by the VE/VCO₂slope (r = 0.300, p = 0.038; r = 0.484, p = 0.002, respectively). LAV showed a significant correlation with peak oxygen consumption (r = -0.328, p = 0.020).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although our study is limited by a retrospective study design and relatively small number of patients, our findings suggest that enlarged LAV and increasing change in LAV is associated with the diminished exercise capacity in HT recipients and warrants further investigation to better elucidate this relationship.</p

Facilitating social innovation through a school emergency preparedness hackathon in Pakistan

In 2020 Pakistan’s first-ever hackathon on school emergencies was organised, where schools and community stakeholders collaborated to deconstruct problems and develop solutions. The study aimed to investigate participants’ motivation for and experiences of the hackathon. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from hackers, mentors, judges and organisers before, during and after the event. Findings indicate diversity amongst participants in terms of age, gender and experiences. The hackers’ motivations were both intrinsic and extrinsic. The challenges were insufficient time, absence of investors, inconsistent mentoring, low participation from public schools and imbalanced gender participation. The hackathon provided a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary collaborative problem-solving and accessing experts for creativity and innovation. Future research should focus on increasing participation and fostering social innovations through school-based civic hackathons

Facilitating social innovation through a school emergency preparedness hackathon in Pakistan

In 2020 Pakistan’s first-ever hackathon on school emergencies was orga-nised, where schools and community stakeholders collaborated to decon-struct problems and develop solutions. The study aimed to investigate participants’ motivation for and experiences of the hackathon. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from hackers, mentors, judges and organisers before, during and after the event. Findings indicate diversity amongst participants in terms of age, gender and experiences. The hack-ers’ motivations were both intrinsic and extrinsic. The challenges were insufficient time, absence of investors, inconsistent mentoring, low parti-cipation from public schools and imbalanced gender participation. The hackathon provided a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary collabora-tive problem-solving and accessing experts for creativity and innovation. Future research should focus on increasing participation and fostering social innovations through school-based civic hackathons