Resource requirements of patients admitted to an acute accident unit.

A simple technique for assessing inpatient resource requirements is presented. Using this technique the demands on various hospital services, made by different patient groups, can be compared. Two hundred admissions to an acute accident unit were analyzed and we found that domestic injuries made the greatest demands on nursing and institutional care aspects of the service, by virtue of their frequency and severity.

Diagnostic failures in the multiple injured.

A retrospective survey of the records of 327 patients with multiple injuries ws carried out in order to establish the incidence of missed injuries and the reasons for diagnostic failures. Twelve per cent of the patients had an injury not diagnosed at the first examination. The most vulnerable group were motorcyclists in whom the incidence was 23%.

The importance of femoral rotation in chondromalacia patellae as shown by serial radiography.

A new radiological technique is presented in which serial axial radiographs of the patellofemoral joints are taken under conditions in which the muscles about the knee and hip are contracted in a manner similar to that during weight-bearing. A form of analysis has been developed whereby patellar rotation can be measured in two planes and femoral rotation about its long axis inferred. A population of asymptomatic adults and children was investigated in this way and their results (regarded as normal) compared with those in fifteen children with idiopathic chondromalacia patellae.

Systemic disturbance from Thompson's arthroplasty: a age-matched and sex-matched controlled retrospective survey.

The records of 107 patients with displaced subcaptial hip fractures treated by Thompson's femoral head replacements have been reviewed to determine the mortality and certain aspects of systemic morbidity. Comparison was made with a group, matched exactly for age and sex, in which intertrochanteric fractures were treated by nail-plate fixation. The patients treated by Thompson's arthroplasty were further subdivided into two groups: one in which methylacrylic cement was used, and one in which it was not used.

The pathophysiological changes of experimental fat embolism: early pre-hypoxaemic changes.

Glyceryl trioleate has been injected into greyhounds as a model of the fat embolism syndrome. Pulmonary vascular pressures, systemic arterial pressure and cardiac output were determined at regular intervals over an 8-hour period. It has been shown that glyceryl tioleate causes an increased pulmonary vascular resistance and a fall in cardiac output.

Experimental fat embolism: a dynamic assessment of pulmonary fat-handling characteristics.

Injection 125I-glyceryl trioleate (0-5 mg/kg) into the right atrium of anaesthetized greyhounds caused the following changes: sequestration of far in the right side of the heart; 95 per cent removal by the lungs in a single passage through the pulmonary circulation; subsequent release of fat into the systemic circulation; rapid overall turnover of fat trapped in the lungs and slow removal of recirculating fat by other tissues. We believe that if there is release of unemulsified fat into the circulation in traumatic fat embolism these findings are of significance in interpreting the subsequent pulmonary events.

Computer-based modeling in the teaching of steady-state enzyme kinetics.

Equations are derived for the steady-state treatment of enzyme reactions with one type of inhibitor, consisting of one reaction cycle or two connected cycles. Computerized stimulation programs are described which are designed to acquaint the student thoroughly with the behavior of enzyme systems. The user has freedom in the choice of parameters for the system, including up to three product-producing rate constants for the two-cycle system.