Neuronavigation assisted endoscopic sinus surgery

In the past two decades, endoscopic sinus surgeries (ESS) have been widely advocated as a safe and effective treatment for disorders of paranasal sinuses that are refractory to medical therapy. ESS caters surgeons with two-dimensional visualization of the anatomical structures; however in scenarios where there is a close anatomical relation between the disease and delicate intracranial or intraorbital structures drastic complications can occur. Hence, endoscopic procedures had to be converted into open surgical procedures if the extent of the disease could not be visualized or cleared thoroughly. Recently however; neuronavigation systems have been combined with ESS to yield better results and facilitate this procedure. The implementation of these systems with ESS has aided surgeons in difficult approaches. We recently decided to use the neuronavigation system of our Neurosurgical department to help aid eradicate various nasal and sinus pathologies in a series of patients

Professionalism in medical students at a private medical college in Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To determine levels of professionalism in undergraduate medical students at a private medical college and assess how changes emerge during their training. Methods: The study was conducted at Aga Khan University, a tertiary care teaching hospital, during November and December 2011. Freshmen, Year 3 and Year 5 students were requested to fill out a questionnaire. It was designed to assess the participants\\u27 levels of professionalism and how they perceived the professional environment around them by incorporating previously described scales. The questionnaire was re-validated on a random sample of practising clinicians at the same hospital. SPSS 17 was used for statistical analysis. Results: The study sample comprised 204 participants. The mean score for level of individual professionalism was 7.72±3.43. Only 13 (6.4%) students had a score one standard deviation above the faculty mean. About 24 (11.8%) were one standard deviation and 35 (17.2%) were 2 standard deviations below the faculty mean. The remaining 130 (63.7%) were \u3e2 standard deviations below the faculty mean. Considering the level of education, the mean score for level of professionalism was 8.00±3.39 for freshmen, 6.85±3.41 for year 3 students, and 8.40±3.34 for year 5 students. Conclusion: The currently employed teaching practices inculcating the values of professionalism in medical students are serving as a buffer to maintain the pre-training levels of professionalism from declining