Swallowing disorders in severe brain injury: risk factors affecting return to oral intake.

Objective: To determine the incidence and type of swallowing disorders that accompany severe brain injury and to identify factors that affect oral intake.

Design: Inception cohort study.

Setting: Level I trauma center.

How support teams can develop research activity.

This report discusses an initiative whereby a research support team has been formed in order to encourage, support and develop research awareness and activity among nurses.

Gap junction currents in cultured muscle cells from human myometrium.

Objective: The electrophysiologic properties of gap junctions between human myometrial smooth muscle cells were studied.

Study Design: Double whole-cell patch clamp recordings were made on pairs of cells from primary cultures of myometrial cells from women undergoing cesarean section. Macroscopic gap junction currents were measured as the change in current in a cell held at a constant voltage while the other member of a pair was subjected to a test pulse of voltage.

Evaluating large scale health information systems: from practice towards theory.

With the introduction of large scale health information systems which are incrementally developed from legacy systems, evaluators are faced with difficult methodological and practical problems. Some of the problems involved in multidisciplinary multi-method evaluations care discussed. It is argued that the development of a framework for evaluation is necessary in order to successfully plan an evaluation, understand the implications of the results and make future predictions based upon them.

Voltage-clamp studies of gap junctions between uterine muscle cells during term and preterm labor.

Gap junctions between myometrial cells increase dramatically during the final stages of pregnancy. To study the functional consequences, we have applied the double-whole-cell voltage-clamp technique to freshly isolated pairs of cells from rat circular and longitudinal myometrium. Junctional conductance was greater between circular muscle-cell pairs from rats delivering either at term (32 +/- 16 nS, mean +/- SD, n = 128) or preterm (26 +/- 17 nS, n = 33) compared with normal preterm (4.

Health education and COPD rehabilitation: a study.

Following last week's introduction to the subject of nutrition and rehabilitation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), this article reports on a study of whether nurses can improve the diet of these patients when they are at home, by providing education about nutrition. The research demonstrated a positive correlation between dietary knowledge and understanding of the link between diet and health. It also showed that change was achieved as a result of education in these areas.

Nutritional status and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

This article explores the importance of an adequate diet for the health of the chronic respiratory patient. Poor nutrition can exacerbate or even cause respiratory symptoms. Therefore, both specialist and generalist nurses need to increase professional nutritional knowledge to address and co-ordinate nutritional aspects of care for patients and their carers.

Factors associated with early onset pneumonia in the severely brain-injured patient.

An analysis of 125 patients with closed head injury was completed in order to identify the risk factors involved in the development of early pneumonia. Pneumonia was diagnosed in 60% of the patients. Early pneumonia developed in 47.

Autistic behaviors in offspring of mothers abusing alcohol and other drugs: a series of case reports.

Although autistic-like behaviors were described even in the earliest reports of fetal alcohol syndrome, it was only recently that fetal alcohol syndrome and autism were reported as a dual diagnosis in six school-aged children. The purpose of the present series of case reports is to describe marked autistic characteristics in three much younger children (25-36 months) with histories of prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs. The behavioral characteristics of these children are described and compared with current diagnostic criteria for autistic disorder.

The nurse's role in giving nutritional advice.

Nurses are ideally placed to advise on nutrition and diet. Using the principles of the nursing process, nurses can assess clients, plan and help them implement changes in diet and evaluate the results. Everyday language should be used and practical advice must be given.

Peri-operative deaths of children.

A recent report of the National Confidential Enquiry into Peri-operative Deaths in children under the age of ten, looked to the problems of surgery and anaesthesia. The enquiry revealed that there must be changes in surgical practice since children need special skills and facilities, and to ensure that surgeons and anaesthetists do not undertake occasional paediatric experience. They advise that no trainee should undertake any anaesthetic or surgical operation on a child of any age without the express permission of his or her consultant.

Evaluation is the key to success. A nurse-led tuberculosis contact tracing service.

1. It is important that health staff increase their knowledge of TB. 2.

Early intervention in severe head injury: long-term benefits of a formalized program.

With traumatic brain injuries numbering more than two million per year, health professionals are faced with the challenges of restoring and maximizing quality of life. This study quantifies the benefits of a formalized head injury program, including the concept of trauma rehabilitation, defined as early, aggressive rehabilitation during acute hospitalization. Thirty-eight severely head injured patients received treatment at the same rehabilitation facility.

A vitreoretinal service.

Many serious disorders that threaten eyesight can now be treated with vitreoretinal surgery. As there was no regional facility for this treatment a service was developed to provide it. Among the first 100 patients treated over half had diabetic vitreoretinal disease.

Phonological process identification of misarticulations of mentally retarded children.

Speech samples of 20 mentally retarded children between the ages of 6 yr, 4 mo and 15 yr were analyzed for the purpose of identification of systematic patterns. Liquid deviations and cluster reductions were the most prevalent phonological processes evidenced in their misarticulations. Postvocalic obstruent omissions, deviations of other sonorants (glides and nasals), velar deviations, stridency deletion, stopping, and /theta, sigma/ deviations were demonstrated less frequently.

Management of severe feeding dysfunction in children with fetal alcohol syndrome.

In the past three years, we have seen three children who required prolonged inpatient admissions for severe feeding dysfunction resulting in nutritional and growth problems. The pregnancies were significant for severe maternal alcohol abuse during the entire pregnancy. All of the subjects had multiple physical findings and dysmorphic features seen in children with mild to severe fetal alcohol syndrome.