End-of-life care in an Australian acute hospital: a retrospective observational study.

Background: There is a gap in knowledge about the kind and quality of care experienced by hospital patients at the end of their lives.

Aims: To document and compare the patterns in end-of-life care for patients dying across a range of different medical units in an acute care hospital.

Methods: A retrospective observational study of consecutive adult inpatient deaths between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2014 in four different medical units of an Australian tertiary referral hospital was performed.

Xmas (brand substitution not permitted).

Objective: To study drug prescribing by brand name versus generic name in an Australian teaching hospital.

Results: Overall, 53% of drugs were prescribed by brand name. Brand names were preferred when they were shorter and easier to remember and spell, when there was only one brand on the market, and when the brand name ended in an x.

Life-threatening interaction between complementary medicines: cyanide toxicity following ingestion of amygdalin and vitamin C.

Objective: To describe a case of severe accidental cyanide poisoning following a single ingestion of amygdalin with therapeutic intent.

Case Summary: A 68-year-old patient with cancer presented to the emergency department shortly after her first dose (3 g) of amygdalin with a reduced Glasgow Coma Score, seizures, and severe lactic acidosis requiring intubation and ventilation. The patient also ingested 4800 mg of vitamin C per day.

Recovery of chlorine-exposed Escherichia coli in estuarine microcosms.

Laboratory microcosm experiments were performed to determine whether chlorine-exposed Escherichia coli are capable of recovery (i.e., increase in numbers of culturable cells) in estuarine waters and if so what water-quality parameters are responsible for this recovery.