Medicine, Religion, and the Humanitarian Ethos: Walter B. Cannon, Unitarianism, and the Care of Spanish Republican Refugees in France.

Biographies of Walter B. Cannon (1871-1945) usually present two sides of his life: one, where he was an outstanding man of science in the United States during the so-called "Golden Age of Medicine," and the other, where he was a leading humanitarian activist engaged in myriad causes, notably in the defense of Spanish democracy during the Civil War (1936-1939). However, these biographies fail to take into account that the apparent link between these two sides of his life was his religious conviction.

The powers of masculinization in humanitarian storytelling: the case of the surgeon María Gómez Álvarez in the Varsovia Hospital (Toulouse, 1944-1950).

This contribution is focused on analysing the power of 'masculinization' through which traditional humanitarian storytelling has been shaped. Strongly marked by a patriarchal vision, humanitarian accounts have traditionally hidden the work of women while stressing that performed by men, who appeared represented as true protagonists and, even, as heroes. In particular, this article analyses the professional career of a Spanish female surgeon named María Gómez (1914-1975) between 1944 and 1950, when she worked in a small charitable hospital based in Toulouse (France) for improving the health-care conditions of Spanish Republican refugees.

Public health, urban space and social exclusion in postwar Spain: the exanthematic typhus epidemic in the city of Valencia, 1941-1943.

After the Spanish Civil War, poor hygiene and nutritional deficiencies among a large part of Spain's population contributed to the rise of epidemic diseases. Exanthematic typhus posed a challenge to the health authorities, especially during the spring of 1941, when the epidemiological cycle of the disease and the lack of infrastructures combined to create a serious health crisis. The Franco regime, aware that this situation posed a threat to its legitimacy, promptly used social exclusion as part of its health policy against the epidemic.

Variation in posture quality across musical instruments and its impact during performances.

Objective: Bad posture increases the risk that a musician may suffer from musculoskeletal disorders. This study compared posture quality required by different instruments or families of instruments.

Methods: Using an ad-hoc postural observation instrument embracing 11 postural variables, four experts evaluated the postures of 100 students attending a Spanish higher conservatory of music.

Neurodegenerative changes are prevented by Erythropoietin in the pmn model of motoneuron degeneration.

Motoneuron diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders characterized by a progressive loss of motoneurons, muscle weakness and premature death. The progressive motor neuronopathy (pmn) mutant mouse has been considered a good model for the autosomal recessive childhood form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Here, we investigated the therapeutic potential of Erythropoietin (Epo) on this mutant mouse.

Analysis of eating disorders among 12-17 year-old adolescents in the island of Gran Canaria.

A clinical pathology characterized by disturbances in eating behaviour has been often associated to socio-cultural factors that influence the psychopathology of these disorders. The alarming increase in the number of teenagers with eating disorders underscores the need to promote research on the underlying causes, and to identify high-risk subpopulations in need of effective targeted treatment. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of eating disorders among an adolescent population of both sexes on the island of Gran Canaria.

[Consultations and "juntas" of physicians as an arena for doctrinal discussions in the Novator Movement (1687-1725)].

The consultations (consultas) and meetings (juntas) of physicians represented an area of prime importance for both medical practice and doctrinal discussions. The analysis of manuscript sources -- the private correspondence of a doctor -- rarely used in this period, reveals the reality of medical practice more accurately than do doctrinal or normative texts. The difference between "consulas" and "juntas" depended on the person who took the initiative.

[Assessment of drug treatment for hypertension in a health centre as a function of associated chronic pathologies and degree of control of the hypertension].

Objective: To assess the suitability of whatever hypertension medication is prescribed for the associated pathology in each patient, and to analyse the monitoring of blood pressure figures.

Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study.Setting.

[Diagnostic evaluation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: role of Epstein-Barr virus].

We present a retrospective series of 27 nasopharyngeal carcinomas, selected from those attended at Ramón y Cajal Hospital between 1977 and 1996, with the aim of review the role of the study of Epstein-Barr virus in the diagnostic process of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Twenty-seven patients, ranging from 14 to 81 years, with an average age of 50 years were selected. Male/female ratio was 1,7.

[Congenital anomalies of the first branchial cleft. Retrospective study].

Anomalies of the first branchial cleft are occasional problems putting up diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties, because the imperfect settlement of reminders of this cleft, which can appear as cysts or branchial fistula, among patients of any age. Though there are several recommended classifications in order to achieve a precious diagnosis and a total surgical removal, sometimes is laborious to correlate the clinical and the histological findings. We report a sequence of congenital periauricular anomalies operated in our Department during a ten-years-term and compare our findings of those quoted after the literature series.

[Parapharyngeal abscess: perilaryngeal infrahyoid extension].

Parapharyngeal abscesses are located between the skull base and the hyoid bone. Their infrahyoid extension is usually following the retropharyngeal space, but also can be through the medial aspect of the parapharyngeal space. Thus, surrounding the visceral fascia, they might invade the perilaryngeal and perihypopharyngeal spaces.

Is conservative treatment of deep neck space infections appropriate?

Background: A 31-patient prospective series on deep neck infections, managed at Hospital Ramón y Cajal in Madrid, Spain, is presented.

Methods: A prospective study was conducted from January 1994 to December 1997, including all parapharyngeal or retropharyngeal infections. Clinical and radiologic findings and length of stay in the hospital were registered.

Extra-laryngeal head and neck tuberculosis.

Objective: Extra-laryngeal head and neck tuberculosis is exceptional. Therefore, a retrospective multicenter study in patients with head and neck tuberculosis, excluding solitary lymphadenitis and laryngeal locations was carried out.

Methods: We reviewed the patients with these features and tuberculosis confirmation by culture and/or histologic granuloma with presence of acid-fast bacilli (AFB).

[Peritonsillar abscess with parotid and peripharyngeal extension. Report of a case].

Peritonsillar abscess is the most frequent complication of a tonsillar infection. The purulent material can spread from peritonsillar space to the fascial neck spaces. These deep neck infections may be a life threatening complication.

[Post-tracheotomy pneumothorax. Is thoracic radiography required after each tracheotomy?].

Pneumothorax complicating a tracheotomy is a rare event, but it should be clinically considered in order to the early treatment, mostly in urgent or pediatric cases. We report 2 cases in which pneumothorax complicated postoperatively the tracheotomy and required early clinic and radiologic diagnosis followed by a promptly and satisfactorily evacuated. We review the need to perform a chest X-Ray after every tracheotomy or only following those cases found to be at risk, as well some effective preventive measures.

[Fibroglandular hamartoma of the nasal cavity: case description and review].

A fibroglandular hamartoma of the nasal cavity was found in a patient with nasal polyposis. The only symptom had been bilateral nasal obstruction for years. The tumor was removed by lateral rhinotomy.

[Thyroglossal cyst: retrospective study of 58 cases. Results of the Sistrunk operation].

Cysts of the thyroglossal duct are one of the most common causes of benign neck masses. They generally occur in young patients and are caused by a defect in thyroglossal duct closure, which sometimes is in close contact with the hyoid. Often several tracts are present.

[Nasal encephalocele: differential diagnosis with nasal glioma].

Congenital nose neoplasms are infrequent, between them neurogenic tumors of the middle line include nasal gliomata (glial ectopies) and nasal encephaloceles, according to an existing or lacking communicating link with the intracranial cavity. We report one congenital naso-encephalocele case in a 16-year-old girl suffering from repeated meningitis events after several nasal polypectomies performed in other departments. She underwent complete removal through fronto-neurosurgical and paralateronasal approach, being the young woman asymptomatic for 3 years.

[Neck lymph node metastases of unknown origin: nasopharyngeal origin and EBV (Epstein-Barr virus)].

We present a retrospective series of 16 cases of undifferentiated squamous carcinoma in cervical metastatic nodes of unknown primary. We review their clinical and radiological evaluation in search of a possible primary tumor, their response to treatment and the eventual development of a primary tumor. Furthermore, we study the presence of Epstein-Barr virus in the metastases as a predictor of their nasopharyngeal origin, in relation to the finding of primary lesions in the nasopharynx during further follow-up of the cases.

[Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the larynx].

We report a case of poorly differentiated mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the larynx. The tumor was supraglottic, located on the left aryepiglottic fold, and produced left laryngeal paresis. The patient underwent total laryngectomy, functional neck dissection, and complementary radiotherapy.

[Osteoplastic frontal sinus flap. Study of 47 cases].

Osteoplastic flap of the frontal sinus, described by Macbeth over 40 years ago, still is the best surgical approach for the diagnosis and definitive treatment of chronic disease. Forty-seven patients were treated with this technique between 1978 and 1995. The conditions treated were, by order of frequency: 16 fronto-ethmoidal mucocele, 12 osteoma, 12 hypertrophic sinusitis, and less frequent disorders, such as osteomyelitis (2), fibrous histiocytoma (2), tuberculosis (1), frontal fracture (1) and dilated pneumosinus (1).

[Laryngeal tuberculosis and laryngeal cancer].

Account of 2 synchronic cases of tuberculosis and laryngeal carcinoma. Apart from bacteriostatic drugs one of them underwent a cordectomy the other one a total laryngectomy and neck dissection. Despite the great majority of laryngeal cancer it is compulsory to take in account the differential diagnosis with the tuberculosis, because of its possible coexistence.