Impact of aesthetic surgery performed abroad on the Irish healthcare system.

Introduction: Aesthetic surgery tourism is a flourishing trend, and challenges often arise when patients return home with post-operative complications, necessitating follow-up care.

Methods: Between July 2021 and June 2023, we conducted a retrospective analysis of patients who presented with complications from aesthetic surgery tourism in two major teaching hospitals in Ireland.

Results: Thirty-three patients with a mean age of 41 years were identified.

An electronic operation note proforma improves the quality of operation notes in burns surgery.

Background: An Operation Note should provide a comprehensive account of the details of a surgical procedure performed and document clinically relevant events which occur throughout the procedure. The Royal College of Surgeons of England, in 2014, updated guidelines on specific criteria to be included in operation notes. Standardisation using procedure-specific operation notes has been shown to significantly improve adherence to these guidelines.

Pedicled sural flaps versus free anterolateral thigh flaps in reconstruction of dorsal foot and ankle defects in children: a systematic review.

Background: This systematic review compared free anterolateral thigh (ALT) flaps versus pedicled distally based sural artery (DBSA) flaps for reconstruction of soft tissue defects of dorsal foot and ankle in children.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed to identify cases where an ALT or DBSA was used to reconstruct the dorsal foot in children. A total of 19 articles were included in the systematic review.

Cyanide poisoning in inhalation injuries.

Cyanide gas forms during the combustion of synthetic polymers and should be considered in patients presenting with inhalation injuries. A persistently high lactate following adequate resuscitation may be an indicator of cyanide exposure. As cyanide poisoning can be rapidly fatal, prompt recognition and treatment of this condition is vital.

Thrombosed capillary network in a full-thickness burn.

Full-thickness burns are associated with cardinal clinical features. The recognition of these signs has important implications for immediate and future care of such burns.

Staphylococcal Osteomyelitis: Disease Progression, Treatment Challenges, and Future Directions.

Osteomyelitis is an inflammatory bone disease that is caused by an infecting microorganism and leads to progressive bone destruction and loss. The most common causative species are the usually commensal staphylococci, with and responsible for the majority of cases. Staphylococcal infections are becoming an increasing global concern, partially due to the resistance mechanisms developed by staphylococci to evade the host immune system and antibiotic treatment.

Experiences with pins and rubber band traction in the treatment of proximal interphalangeal joint contracture.

Background: Proximal interphalangeal joint (PIPJ) contracture is a difficult problem to treat regardless of etiology. Although numerous interventions have been recommended, published results are mediocre at best.

Objective: The authors describe their experience and results of using a modification of pins and rubber band traction (PRBT) - applying a dynamic extension apparatus to a contracted PIPJ using the constant traction force in a stretched rubber (elastic) band.

Trineural injury to the right hand after domestic electrocution.

Electrocution injuries account for a significant amount of burns unit admissions each year, and can be fatal. These injuries are divided into high-voltage (over 1000 volts) and low-voltage (less than 1000 volts) injuries, with lightning strikes (greater than 100 million volts) considered separately. Although the majority of electrocution injuries are of low voltage, most of the published reports concern industrial/high-voltage and lightning injuries.

Attitudes to cadaveric organ donation in Irish preclinical medical students.

There is a worldwide shortage of organs for transplantation. It has been shown that the attitude of healthcare professionals can improve the rates of organ donation, and that educational programs aimed at improving both attitudes and knowledge base of professionals can have positive outcomes. Although there has been research carried out on this topic, there has been none in Ireland.

Attitudes to anatomy dissection in an Irish medical school.

Many studies around the world have looked at the stresses placed on medical students by cadaveric dissection. Although these studies have linked the use of cadavers in medical teaching to stress, some investigations have suggested an association with severe psychological stress and even post-traumatic stress disorder. This study assessed the attitudes of medical and biomedical sciences students in an Irish medical school towards cadaveric dissection by recording, through a questionnaire, their perceptions and experience before initial exposure to dissection and subsequently examining their attitudes after the first dissection and after 9 weeks.

Student attitudes to whole body donation are influenced by dissection.

Given the important role that anatomical dissection plays in the shaping of medical student attitudes to life and death, these attitudes have not been evaluated in the context of whole body donation for medical science. First year students of anatomy in an Irish university medical school were surveyed by questionnaire before and after the initial dissection and again after 9 weeks of anatomical dissection. Analysis of student responses to the idea of whole body donation by an unrelated stranger, a family member, or by the respondent showed that a priori attitudes to donation by a stranger did not change with exposure to dissection.