The effect of a nursing intervention on the incidence of older patient falls.

This paper describes the evaluation of a fall prevention protocol that combined the assessment of the mobility and confusion status of 2,023 patients aged 70 years and over and a toileting regimen for at risk patients who were both confused and having mobility problems. The six months' study was conducted in a 450 bed metropolitan teaching hospital and involved approximately 500 nursing staff in the hospital's medical and surgical wards. Almost five percent (4.

Use of inpatient hospital services by people aged 90-99 years.

Objective: To examine the use of inpatient hospital services by people aged 90-99 years.

Design: Retrospective case note review.

Setting: Flinders Medical Centre, a 516-bed university teaching hospital in Adelaide, South Australia.

Preparation and care of the area postrema-lesioned cat.

The area postrema (AP) is being widely studied to delineate its role in such varied functions as blood pressure regulation, conditioned taste aversion, water and energy balance, and radiation-induced emesis. This paper describes the preoperative preparation, surgical procedure, and postoperative care of cats kept long-term in which the AP was lesioned by electrocautery. A dorsal midline approach under gas anesthesia allowed access to selectively lesion the AP.

Angiotensin II-induced taste aversion learning in cats and rats and the role of the area postrema.

The capacity of angiotensin II (AII, 1 mg/kg, IP) to produce a taste aversion was studied in cats and rats with and without lesions of the area postrema. Using a one-bottle test, injection of AII produced an aversion in cats but not in rats. Using a two-bottle test, injection of AII produced a slight, but significant, decrease in sucrose preference in intact rats, but had no effect on rats with area postrema lesions.