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D P Harrison

Publications and source records attributed to D P Harrison.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Assessment of minimally responsive patients: clinical difficulties of single-case design.

Improved management of very severely central nervous system (CNS) injured individuals has given rise to an increasing number of patients in a minimally responsive state. There is a growing literature stressing the importance of accurately determining these patients' level of cognitive functioning and its role in appropriate rehabilitation and long term management. The single case design model appears to be the intervention of choice, with its great flexibility and tailored approach to each individual case. The recent literature has focused on the technical aspects of the assessment, offering clear procedural guidelines. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information about clinical factors such as clinical setting and family involvement, which may interfere with or prevent a planned intervention. The case of MT is presented, who was the subject of a single case intervention 9 months following an extremely severe traumatic brain injury. The planned intervention was to examine the effects of a psychostimulant on MT's level of arousal, in order to improve his participation in the rehabilitation programme. Beyond the results (which were equivocal), the clinical difficulties in conducting single case study designs in rehabilitation are discussed. Ways to minimize these difficulties are proposed.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Postoperative autologous transfusion in cardiac surgery. A prospective, randomised study.

To investigate the safety and efficacy of postoperative autologous blood transfusion (AT) using the Shiley hardshell venous reservoir, a prospective, randomised, controlled study was carried out in two matched groups of twenty patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass surgery. The mean volume of shed mediastinal blood reinfused in the first 6 h postoperatively was 371.7 +/- 63.23 ml. Use of homologous blood was reduced from 760.5 +/- 108.37 ml in the control patients to 466.25 +/- 87.44 ml in the AT patients, a reduction of 38.7% (p less than 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the clinical outcome, overall blood loss, use of platelets, fresh frozen plasma and colloids, haematological indices, renal and hepatic functions, or clotting mechanism, although there was a reduction in the fibrinogen level in the patients who received AT (p less than 0.05). Mediastinal blood did not clot and was defibrinogenated. It contained significant levels of haemoglobin (8.175 +/- 0.506 g/dl), platelets (96.55 +/- 10.39 per mm3 10(3)), protein (42.5 +/- 1.13 g/l), calcium (2.385 +/- 0.054 mmol/l) and was well oxygenated (PO2 = 20.46 +/- 0.81 kPa). No patients developed bacteraemia or had any AT-related infections. We conclude that postoperative autologous transfusion using the Shiley hardshell venous reservoir is a safe and efficient method for reducing postoperative homologous blood requirement after coronary artery bypass surgery.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

An enlarged aggregate of apocrine glands on the chest of karyotype I owl monkeys.

A firm circumscribed umbilicated mass in the middle of the chest, overlying the cephalad portion of the sternum, was an incidental finding in the skin of three males and one female from a group of eight (four male and four female) aged karyotype I owl monkeys (Aotus trivirgatus) released to our laboratory from the breeding colony of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). Light microscopic examination of each mass revealed an enlarged aggregate of apocrine glands which was interpreted to be the result of hyperplasia. Some degree of enlargement of the aggregate of glands was observed on all adult male karyotype I owl monkeys recently examined at WRAIR.

Aging↗
PubMed1984

Contact lens wear problems: implications of penicillin allergy, diabetic relatives, and use of birth control pills.

A study was carried out on a random sample of contact lens patients seen in private practice. Some of these patients experienced contact lens wear problems including keratitis, hyperemia, and discomfort. The results indicate that: (1) Fifty percent of those who experienced problems with the wear of hard contact lenses had diabetic relatives. (2) It is likely that the wear of either hard or soft contact lenses is adversely affected by the use of birth control pills. (3) Forty-five percent of those patients who were allergic to penicillin experienced problems with soft contact lens care regimens containing thimerosal. Some implications of an immunological cross-reactivity between thimerosal-haptenated proteins and penicillin-haptenated proteins are discussed.

Contact Lenses↗