A critical literature review highlighting the methodological differences within epidemiological studies: Pedal Amputations in England.

Introduction: There is an absence in the application of standardised epidemiological principles when calculating and reporting on lower extremity amputation (LEA) rates [1]. The rates of minor LEAs in the diabetic population range from 1.2-362.

From fixer to facilitator: an interpretative phenomenological study of diabetes person-centred counselling and empowerment-based education.

Background: The purpose of this study is to explore the professional and personal experiences of multidisciplinary healthcare professionals during and following diabetes counselling and empowerment-based education.

Methods: Everyone who had participated in a diabetes counselling and empowerment course between 2008-2016 was invited to respond to an online survey and follow-up telephone interview if willing. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Burnout and intent-to-leave in physical therapists: a preliminary analysis of factors under organizational control.

Methods: Twelve hundred PTs were sent a survey packet including the 20-item Ethics Environment Questionnaire (EEQ) and additional items inquiring about contemporary practice factors. Returned packets (n = 340) were analyzed utilizing correlational and regression analyses to determine relationships between ethical environment, burnout, intent-to-leave, productivity standards, billing and coding requirements and ability to provide pro-bono services.

Results: There was a strong correlation between PTs' view of organizational ethics and burnout (T -0.

Evaluation of the 'Live Life Better Service', a community-based weight management service, for morbidly obese patients.

Background: There is a limited evidence on the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions in achieving and maintaining a significant level of weight loss in morbidly obese patients. This study evaluated the impact on weight loss and psychological well-being of a community-based weight management service for morbidly obese patients [body mass index (BMI) ≥35 with related co-morbidities or BMI >40] in Derbyshire county.

Methods: Five hundred and fifty-one participants entered the service since 2010, and 238 participants were still active within the service or had completed the 2-year intervention in April 2013.

Globe preservation surgery for a paranasal tumor with orbital extension.

Orbital exenteration is a rare radical procedure used for the treatment of locally invasive or potentially life threatening orbital tumors. The procedure results in significant visual and psychosocial disability. Recently there has been a shift toward a subtotal extenteration with maximum preservation of orbital tissue and globe in appropriate cases.

Treatment of "heavy eye syndrome" using simple loop myopexy.

Purpose: To describe our results using a technique modified from that described by Yokoyama in 1991 for treating heavy eye syndrome with high myopia by restoring the normal anatomical relationship of superior rectus and lateral rectus. We perform a simple loop myopexy between superior rectus and lateral rectus without concurrent muscle splitting, medial rectus recession, or scleral fixation.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of records of all patients with heavy eye syndrome who underwent our modified simple loop myopexy procedure between 2005 and 2008.

The psychosocial aspects of strabismus: correlation between the AS-20 and DAS59 quality-of-life questionnaires.

Purpose: To compare two quality-of-life (QoL) scales and subscales: the Derriford Appearance Scale 59 (DAS59) and the Adult Strabismus-20 (AS-20) scale in a series of strabismic and nonstrabismic patients and to illustrate the differences in results between strabismic and nonstrabismic patients.

Methods: The DAS59 is a self-report QoL questionnaire generating an assessment of distress caused by problems of appearance. The AS-20 is a newly developed strabismus specific QoL scale.

Botulinum toxin injection for postoperative diplopia testing in adult strabismus.

Purpose: To investigate the use of botulinum toxin type A in identifying adult patients with constant strabismus who are at high risk of developing intractable diplopia after surgery.

Methods: A retrospective review of adult patients with constant horizontal strabismus who had botulinum toxin injection to evaluate their risk of postoperative diplopia. These patients reported diplopia when prisms were used to neutralize the deviation.

Goldmann tonometer calibration: a national survey.

Introduction: Recent studies suggest that Goldmann tonometers can rapidly develop calibration errors (CEs) in clinical use and routine checks are necessary to ensure accuracy.

Purpose: To determine current practice regarding CE checks in the United Kingdom and assess the views of senior nursing staff in charge of running ophthalmology outpatient clinics as to whom they feel to be responsible for CE checks.

Methods: Every ophthalmology unit with training recognition in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales was contacted.

Capillary blood glucose monitoring.

This article, the first in a series of articles relating to clinical skills in nursing, outlines the procedure of capillary blood glucose monitoring. This is a convenient way of monitoring blood glucose patterns and can be a useful aid in guiding treatment changes in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, especially during periods of illness or frequent hypoglycaemia.

Tonometer disinfection practice in the United Kingdom: a national survey.

Purpose: To assess current tonometer disinfection practice in the UK, and compare with published recommendations.

Methods: Every ophthalmology unit with training recognition in the UK was contacted (n=155). A senior nurse at each institution completed a telephone questionnaire regarding local tonometer disinfection practice.

Adjustment of the surgical nomogram for surgery on slipped extraocular muscles.

Purpose: A slipped muscle is an underdiagnosed complication of strabismus surgery. Surgery necessitates intraoperative diagnosis, measurement, and resection of the empty sheath. We analyzed the results of empty sheath surgery for slipped medial and lateral rectus muscles in a large cohort of patients.

Idiopathic sclerosing orbital inflammation.

Objective: To perform a multicenter review of the clinical features and treatment of 31 patients with idiopathic sclerosing orbital inflammation.

Methods: We included all patients with histologically confirmed idiopathic sclerosing orbital inflammation from 5 regional orbital centers. We reviewed the case notes to determine the clinical presentation, diagnostic features, and response to treatment.

The assessment of fitness to drive in people with dementia.

Objective: To determine whether cognitive tests predict fitness to drive in patients with dementia.

Design: Two group comparison of patients with dementia and healthy elderly volunteers, and comparison of patients with dementia who were found safe to drive and those found unsafe, followed by a validation study.

Participants: Forty-two people with dementia and 33 healthy elderly volunteers with no known memory problems who were driving.

Vocalisation in verbal hallucinations: case report and theoretical model.

Perception of one's speech or the speech of others reflects an intrinsic process and should not to be seen as a product of information processing of external sensory input. From this perspective, the perception of one's own or others' speech is fundamentally equivalent to the experience of verbal hallucinations. Speech perception is generated primarily in the focus of attention, but auditory and proprioreceptive input from verbal articulations play an important constraining role, ensuring that perception remains adaptive to interaction with the external world.

Impact of epilepsy in adolescence: a UK controlled study.

Purpose: The goals of the work described here were to investigate the psychological and social impact of epilepsy on adolescents and to identify to what degree clinical and demographic variables and knowledge of epilepsy could influence psychosocial functioning.

Methods: Seventy adolescents with epilepsy were compared with healthy controls (matched for age, sex, and reading ability) on measures of self-esteem, social adjustment, depression, and obsession. Within the epilepsy group, the impact of seizure frequency, seizure severity, and knowledge of epilepsy on the above measures was also determined.

Treated threshold stage 3 versus spontaneously regressed subthreshold stage 3 retinopathy of prematurity: a study of motility, refractive, and anatomical outcomes at 6 months and 36 months.

Aim: To compare the visual acuity (VA), spherical equivalent refractive error, motility, and anatomical outcomes in children with treated regressed threshold stage 3 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and those with spontaneously regressed subthreshold stage 3 ROP.

Method: 6 month and 3 year data collected from infants examined between 1989 and 1999 with regressed stage 3 ROP, with or without treatment were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: 85 infants were included in this study.

A neuroanatomical model of passivity phenomena.

Any attempt to elucidate the nature and mechanism of passivity phenomena, i.e., experiences that one's conscious actions or thoughts have not been 'willed' by oneself, requires an integrative philosophical-neurobiological approach.

Botulinum toxin and the eye.

Botulinum toxin in ophthalmology is used to reduce the function of the eyelid muscles in spasms or therapeutically. Therapeutic and diagnostic use in strabismus is also discussed, along with the controversial treatment of nystagmus.

Visual complications of proton beam therapy for clival chordoma.

Purpose: Combining maximal surgical resection with high-dose proton radiation therapy is reported to be currently the best management of patients with clival chordoma.

Method: Since 1991, four consecutive patients from our institution with this tumour have been referred for postoperative proton beam radiotherapy.

Result: We have experienced an unusually high complication rate (50%) of delayed radiation optic neuropathy.

Living with an incomplete vagina and womb: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of vaginal agenesis.

The objective of this study was to explore women's personal experiences of living with vaginal agenesis to gain insight in to psychological, social and emotional consequences of diagnosis and treatment. It employed interpretative phenomenological analysis for an in-depth exploratory study of a small sample of women with vaginal agenesis. The verbatim transcripts of semi-structured interviews with seven women diagnosed with vaginal agenesis were used as data for an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Management of amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis.

Thyrotoxicosis occurs in up to 3% of people prescribed amiodarone in the UK. The management of amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis remains a clinical challenge, as data on optimal treatment from controlled trials are not available. This review will focus on current lines of management.

Remacemide hydrochloride as an add-on therapy in epilepsy: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of three dose levels (300, 600 and 1200 mg/day) in a Q.I.D. regimen.

Remacemide hydrochloride is a low-affinity, non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor channel blocker, under investigation in epilepsy. This double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study assessed the safety and efficacy of remacemide hydrochloride or placebo, as adjunctive therapy, in 252 adult patients with refractory epilepsy who were already taking up to three antiepileptic drugs (including an enzyme-inducer). Patients were randomized to one of three doses of remacemide hydrochloride (300, 600 or 1200 mg /day) or placebo Q.

Risk factor characteristics in carers who physically abuse or neglect their elderly dependants.

This study investigates the prevalence of, and differences in, risk factor characteristics in a sample of two select populations of carers, one of which physically abused their elderly dependants and one of which neglected them. Nineteen carers (nine who had physically abused and 10 who had neglected their elderly relatives), who were referred to clinical psychology by either their general practitioner or their psychiatrist, were invited to take part in this study. A detailed history of risk factors was obtained, including history of alcohol dependency, type and history of mental ill health, history of maltreatment earlier in life, who they were caring for, how long they had been a carer and whether they felt isolated as a carer.