Spinal cord injury and development of pressure injury during acute rehabilitation in Norway: a national retrospective cross-sectional study.

Study Design: A national, retrospective, cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To analyze the prevalence of pressure injury (PI), and characteristics associated with PI development in the hospitalized population of persons with a newly acquired spinal cord injury (SCI) between 2004 and 2014.

Setting: All three specialized Spinal Cord Units in Norway.

Vision-related quality of life in patients with occipital stroke.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to detect visual field defects (VFDs) after occipital infarction, investigate the rate of recovery and the impact of VFD upon vision-related quality of life (QoL).

Materials And Methods: Multicenter, prospective study including patients with MRI verified acute occipital infarction (NOR-OCCIP project). Ophthalmological examination including perimetry was performed within 2 weeks and after 6 months.

Visual dysfunction in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis can give rise to signs and symptoms from the entire nervous system, including visual impairments. Visual impairments often go unreported because they are not obvious to patients, which means that doctors must ask about them specifically. Regular monitoring of vision is important, however, to provide personalised rehabilitation and assistive technologies, and thereby improve patients’ functioning and quality of life.

Loss of life years due to unavailable helicopter emergency medical service: a single base study from a rural area of Norway.

Despite the potential benefits of physician-staffed Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS), many dispatches to primary HEMS missions in Norway are cancelled before patient encounter. Information is sparse regarding the health consequences when medically indicated HEMS missions are cancelled and the patients are treated by a GP and ambulance staff only. We aimed to estimate the potential loss of life years for patients in these situations.

Hospital based care at home; study protocol for a mixed epidemiological and randomized controlled trial.

Background: Individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI) are prone to pressure ulcers (PUs) because of the loss of sensorimotor function involved as well as increased skin moisture. Treatment of PU after SCI is complicated, involving different specialties and with need for long-lasting follow-up. This study should identify risk factors for PU after SCI, and find an effective and less time-consuming treatment for the condition among different available methods for follow-up.

[Pressure ulcers after spinal cord injury].

Background: Pressure ulcers are a serious and frequently occurring complication in patients with a traumatic spinal cord injury. The purpose of the article is to consider the causes of pressure ulcers and how to prevent them.

Method: The article is based on a non-systematic search in the PubMed database and own clinical experience.

Myasthenia gravis: a review of available treatment approaches.

Patients with autoimmune myasthenia gravis (MG) should be further classified before initiating therapy, as treatment response varies for ocular versus generalised, early onset versus late onset, and acetylcholine receptor antibody positive versus MuSK antibody positive disease. Most patients need immunosuppression in addition to symptomatic therapy. Prednisolone and azathioprine represent first choice drugs, whereas several second choice options are recommended and should be considered.

Arthrogryposis multiplexa congenita: an epidemiologic study of nearly 9 million births in 24 EUROCAT registers.

Objective: To examine the occurrence of arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) in Europe and to identify possible risk factors.

Study Design: Retrospective population-based epidemiological study using EUROCAT congenital anomaly registries. The study population included all cases of AMC (based on WHO ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes) that were livebirths (LB), fetal deaths (FD) from 20 weeks gestation and underwent termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly (TOPFA), 1980-2006.

Retinal nerve fibre layer attenuation: clinical indicator for vigabatrin toxicity.

Purpose: To investigate whether persistent visual field defects among patients exposed once to the antiepileptic drug vigabatrin (VGB) were associated with peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer thickness (RNFLT) attenuation.

Methods: Nine individuals with partial epilepsy and VGB-attributed visual field loss (group 1; 18 eyes) and seven age- and gender-matched individuals with epilepsy and no previous VGB exposure (group 2; 14 eyes) were included in the study. Full-field 120 point screening perimetry out to 60 degrees from central fixation using the Humphrey Field Analyzer was performed.

Anti-Heat Shock Protein 70 antibody levels are increased in myasthenia gravis and Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder where patients develop autoantibodies towards skeletal muscle proteins (e.g. acetylcholine receptor and muscle specific kinase), causing weakness in striated muscles.

Acute visual loss after spinal surgery.

Purpose: To report visual loss after prone spinal surgery.

Methods: Computed tomography scan, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Results: A 56-year-old man demonstrated loss of vision in the left eye after cervical spinal surgery.

Pregnancies and deliveries in patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

Objective: To investigate the effect of maternal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) on pregnancy and delivery.

Methods: Data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway 1967 to 2002 were surveyed. This registry has compulsory notification of all births.

Myasthenia gravis: consequences for pregnancy, delivery, and the newborn.

Objective: To investigate the effect of maternal myasthenia gravis (MG) on giving birth and on the newborn.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study for 1967 through 2000 was undertaken, using data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway, based on the compulsory notification of all births. The target group consisted of 127 births by mothers with MG.