Medical Bag Research Articles

Is a warm house a medical intervention?

You don't have to work very long taking care of poor people before you realize that the contents of our medical bag of tricks are often insufficient to improve their health status. One key contributor to ill health is the environment around the patient—do people smoke? Can the family afford healthy food? Is the home safe and warm? The last of these is explored this week in a ground-breaking …

Pulse oximetry in clinical forensic practice

The potential role of a hand held battery operated digital pulse oximeter was investigated on 270 consecutive patients seen by one forensic medical examiner. An oxygen saturation reading on air was obtained on 236 patients (87%). Of the patients in whom the pulse oximeter could not provide a reading, the principal reason for being unable to record a value was lack of patient cooperation (26 of the 34 patients). Of the 236 oxygen saturations recorded, 234 were 95% or higher. The two patients with lower readings (83% and 93%) required assessment and treatment at hospital: one for an opioid overdose, the other for pneumonia. The modern generation of hand held pulse oximeters can provide very useful information in a challenging environment and should occupy a definite corner of the forensic medical examiner’s medical bag.

Equipment and Supplies for Sports and Event Medicine

There is an art and a science to determining the contents of an appropriate medical bag for sports and event medicine. Sports and event medicine encompass a broad range of activities and venues, and the medical bag's contents must be adapted accordingly. We discuss relevant considerations as well as general principles and recommendations accompanied by a checklist, using coverage of football games as a model.

Bag some aspirin.

Aspirin is an effective, vital, and extremely inexpensive component of treating acute coronary syndromes. However, during a routine review in 2003 of medical bags used by our staff, no aspirin was found.

Evaluation of a Steam Autoclave for Sterilizing Medical Waste at a University Health Center

BACKGROUND: As healthcare institutions search for methods to decrease costs associated with medical waste disposal, many are turning to the use of steam autoclaves. Steam autoclaving theoretically saves money by sterilizing large loads of medical waste, making it safe for disposal in a public landfill. There are no national standards for challenging medical waste autoclaves and no guidelines for parameters of sterilization for medical waste. When Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center—Shreveport (LSUHSC—S) tested one steam autoclave marketed as a medical waste autoclave, the machine repeatedly failed the tests. A complete description of the challenge testing and results are presented. METHODS: A test scenario was developed using biological indicators (BI) and chemical indicators distributed throughout four loads of clean waste which were controlled for weight, volume, and density. BI ampules and chemical strips were wrapped inside an adult diaper, which was tied in a common plastic bag and placed inside an open medical waste bag, reflecting common diaper disposal methods. At least five prepared bags were distributed throughout each load. Loads were run at 270° F, 30 pounds per square inch (psi), for 30 minutes, or at 270° F, 30 psi, for 60 minutes. RESULTS: Bacterial growth occurred in 18 out of 22 ampules, and chemical indicators failed in 19 out of 22 locations. CONCLUSIONS: Steam did not fully penetrate the load, and bacteria were not killed. Despite assurances from marketers of medical waste autoclaves, institutions considering this method must test autoclaves carefully to ensure safety and compliance with local health regulations.

Influences of The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on Glycemic Control in Diabetic Patients

We investigated influences on glycemic control in 177 diabetic patients after The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake which occurred on January 17, 1995. Changes in serum HbA 1c level were studied according to the worsen rate of dietary and living conditions. A significant temporary increase in the mean value of HbA 1c level was found after the earthquake (8.34±2.07% in March, 1995 vs. 7.74±1.82% in December, 1994, P<0.01). Ninety nine of them showed more than 0.5% in the rate of increase. Multiple regression analysis was applied to the following factors: inappropriate diet, discontinuation of drug uptake, reduction of exercise, destruction of house, long stay at shelter, sex, age, and pre-earthquake therapy. Among them, inappropriate diet demonstrated the highest partial regression coefficient to raise the mean value of the HbA 1c level. The increased level of HbA 1c declined gradually to the pre-earthquake level in September, 1995. This study emphasizes the importance of appropriate diet for diabetic patients during a natural disaster. To fulfil it, medical staff have to educate diabetic patients of their disorders tediously in ordinary time. In addition, it seems quite useful to supply a medical information card and a small medical bag containing essential drugs to each patient.

Understanding Drug Treatment in Mental Health Care

Alyson J Bond, Malcolm H Lader Wiley, £15.99, pp 235 ISBN 0 471 96171 X If you must steal something from my medical bag take my stethoscope but leave me my British National Formulary. Since I was a house officer I have rarely allowed myself to be more than a few feet away from a copy of that regularly updated, authoritative manual of therapeutics. Books aimed at improving general practitioners' understanding of drug treatments must offer more than the BNF's succinct background sections yet remain small enough to be read. I have no doubt …

Potential Film Applications for Syndiotactic Polypropylene

Syndiotactic polypropylene (sPP) can be used to improve various properties of both cast and blown (biaxially-oriented) film made from poly-propylene (PP) or propylene copolymers. At low concentrations (10-30%), sPP improves clarity, impact strength, tear strength, heat sealability and the coefficient of friction. Higher concentrations (70% +) of sPP with isotactic PP (iPP) added to aid in processability (reducing tackiness) will produce tough, high clarity films. Monolayer sPP films developed for low temperature (&lt; 0C) applications have demonstrated better heat seal strength than a commercial three layer film used for manufacturing medical bags; one of these sPP films has equivalent tear strength.

The Use of Aspirin and Opiates by Dumfries and Galloway General Practitioners in the Management of Acute Myocardial Infarction

In March 1994 a study in the British Medical Journal indicated a low rate of administration of aspirin and opiates by general practitioners in cases of suspected myocardial infarction. A retrospective analysis was made of 120 consecutive admissions to the medical intensive care unit of Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, by general practitioners, with a primary diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Of these 120 cases, 24% were given aspirin by their G.P. prior to admission and 64% were given opiate (IV or IM). Thirty-three percent were already on regular aspirin and of these 18% received further aspirin prior to admission. These figures were considerably better than those previously quoted and they showed that prior regular aspirin therapy did influence the GPs' decision on further administration of aspirin in the acute event. A questionnaire sent to all GPs in Dumfries and Galloway revealed that 100% carried aspirin in their medical bags, 62% claimed to give aspirin to patients with suspected MI, 95% used a British Heart Foundation approved dose of aspirin and 83.3% administered the aspirin using one of the approved methods.

Medical cooperation AIDS air bag injury research

Medical cooperation AIDS air bag injury research

Electronic Tools for Your Medical Bag?

Electronic Tools for Your Medical Bag?

Doctors, Drug Companies, and Gifts

To the Editor.— In a recent article, Chren et al 1 presented the practical and ethical considerations associated with physicians accepting gifts from pharmaceutical companies. Two issues, the educational efforts regarding gifts within medical schools and residency programs and the actual importance of many new medications, deserve further emphasis. The offering of gifts such as a stethoscope, medical bag, or textbook begins in medical school. As mentioned in the article 1 and as illustrated by the findings of Palmisano and Edelstein, 2 the ethical issues of accepting gifts from pharmaceutical companies should be discussed very early. In a survey of 100 third-year medical students, Palmisano and Edelstein 2 reported that more than 85% of the students believed it inappropriate for a public official to accept a $50 gift from a contractor, while fewer than half responded similarly in reference to accepting a gift of equal value from a pharmaceutical company.

The Team Physician's Medical Bag

A review of medications and equipment that should be included in assembling a team physician's medical bag is presented. Factors considered in these recommendations are likelihood and safety of use, cost, and convenience of handling.

A matter of influence.

Some of us remember, dimly, a type of ethical decision that arose during our training days many years ago. Was it acceptable to receive a none-too-sturdy medical bag as a gift from Pharmaceutical Manufacturer A? Should one have arty qualms about going to a reception and dinner at Anthony's Pier 4, courtesy of Manufacturer B? There was no untoward pressure from the friendly drug representatives who extended these offers, and certainly no fear that such small bounty would corrupt our clinical judgment in selecting the best pill in any given situation. But for at least some of us, several questions . . .

Pediatric Otolaryngology: New Directions in Therapy

The editor fulfills his stated objective of providing the pediatrician with a convenient reference of common otolaryngologic disorders in routine clinical practice. The book's depth is basic and the narratives are concise, thus, proving to be of merit to the pediatric intern or resident, as well as medical students and allied health professionals. There are 19 contributing authors most of whom are otolaryngologists. The majority of them are drawn from a single medical institution, which somewhat deprives this intense medical-surgical subject of a variegated input. This book is of a handy size and weight, lending itself to easy transport in a medical bag. The format is arranged for rapid reference and easy reading, with clear diagrams and selective photographs of relevant head and neck pathologic conditions. References following each section are current, but variable in number, with 25% of the chapters having fewer than five references or none. More specifically,

Frequent Sports Injuries of Children: Etiology, Treatment, and Prevention

Millions of American children are playing and competing on basketball, football, soccer, tennis, baseball, swim, and wrestling teams. Organized sports participation has become an integral part of a child's developmental experience. Children generally enjoy participating on teams, but injuries do occur. This article will focus on frequent sports injuries sustained by children during practice and competition, the injury potential of sports, and the etiology, prevention, and treatment of the injury. Items necessary for the “team medical bag” for initial treatment of sports injuries is also discussed.

The "Blackness of Life": The Function of Edwin O'Connor's Comedy

'Absurd,' Father Feeley said. 'Ludicrous. And yet typical: we live in the midst of a roaring farce.' Father Feeley's observation, expressed in the novel I Was Dancing (1964), is not one which we would readily associate with the work of Edwin O'Connor, the author of such popular and conventionally realistic novels as The Last Hurrah (1956), The Edge of Sadness (1961), and All in the Family (1966). Certainly, O'Connor is not a practitioner of the Absurd or a pupil in the school of Black Humor, and he would have been quick to reject such classifications. However, Father Feeley's view of the farcical unpredictability and ubiquitous absurdity of human existence does provide a clue to the function of the comedy which plays such an important and entertaining part in O'Connor's novels. This comedy consists largely, though not entirely, in his creation of the hilarious caricatures that critic Hugh Rank calls grotesques2 and in his persistent underscoring of the ridiculous, the ludicrous, and the incongruous in an otherwise apparently rational world. O'Connor's selfacknowledged interest in vaudeville and his close working relationship with Fred Allen are reflected in such figures as General Walter Beak Blackburn of The Oracle (1951), the bumbling elderly warrior for whom the hydrogen bomb is just another weapon (A big weapon, yes, but still a weapon),3 or Billy Ryan of I Was Dancing, the quack free lancer of medicine who keeps dirty socks in his medical bag (IWD, p. 57). Although O'Connor occasionally evokes laughter by means of verbal wit or sarcasm, more often he utilizes his extraordinarily sensitive ear for speech to exaggerate character and to emphasize the ridiculous. Clearly, comedy is a major ingredient of O'Connor's fiction, and his sense of the comic is characterized by an awareness of the extent to which human existence is permeated by absurdity. Anyone who has read O'Connor's novels and has encountered the dozens of minor and not-so-minor comic figures which seem to spring up endlessly in his fiction will understand the charges that the author has not properly assimilated his materials and is indulging in a taste for the comic

A ???Last Ditch??? Airway

In a patient whose airway is in jeopardy after unsuccessful attempts at conservative measures to clear it and after failed attempts at intubation, the intravenous tubing connector spike may be considered as an emergency percutaneous tracheostomy device. It is readily available wherever physicians have intravenous solutions at hand. It is inserted through the cricothyroid space with the help of a scalpel blade or other sharp instrument such as a pair of scissors. A severed spike can be as easily carried in a pocket, purse or medical bag as can an intravenous cannula. A number 11 scalpel blade fits neatly between two credit cards. The shape of the spike makes it fortuitously adaptable to intermittent positive pressure ventilation by mouth or standard resuscitation equipment. If the patient is otherwise well enough, it is of sufficient bore to allow spontaneous respiration. I have been fortunate not to have had the opportunity to use this device in an emergency situation as of the time of the submission of this paper.

A "last ditch" airway.

In a patient whose airway is in jeopardy after unsuccessful attempts at conservative measures to clear it and after failed attempts at intubation, the intravenous tubing connector spike may be considered as an emergency percutaneous tracheostomy device. It is readily available wherever physicians have intravenous solutions at hand. It is inserted through the cricothyroid space with the help of a scalpel blade or other sharp instrument such as a pair of scissors. A severed spike can be as easily carried in a pocket, purse or medical bag as can an intravenous cannula. A number 11 scalpel blade fits neatly between two credit cards. The shape of the spike makes it fortuitously adaptable to intermittent positive pressure ventilation by mouth or standard resuscitation equipment. If the patient is otherwise well enough, it is of sufficient bore to allow spontaneous respiration. I have been fortunate not to have had the opportunity to use this device in an emergency situation as of the time of the submission of this paper.

Osler and continuing education.

Letters and Comments1 December 1970Osler and Continuing EducationR. H. ROZENDALR. H. ROZENDALSearch for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-73-6-1042_2 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptTo the editor: I have just finished reading Dr. Gibson's review of McGovern and Roland'sWm. Osler: The Continuing Educationand would like to contribute my impressions of Osler as held by one fairly recent (1966) medical school graduate. I have not seen this book yet, but I have read and am readingAequanamitas, a book given to me by another physician just before I began medical school. It had been given to him by a pharmaceutical company on his graduation and was a gift of far greater value than the stethoscopes and medical bags that this same company gave... This content is PDF only. To continue reading please click on the PDF icon. Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: LCDR (MC) USN Subase Dispensary, Pearl Harbor c/o FPO, San Francisco, Calif. 96610 PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics 1 December 1970Volume 73, Issue 6Page: 1042-1042KeywordsContinuing medical educationGraduate medical education ePublished: 1 December 2008 Issue Published: 1 December 1970 PDF downloadLoading ...