Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H al Mahdy.
A woman with peripheral vascular disease developed cytomegalovirus colitis following repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm. Cytomegalovirus colitis developing in an immunocompetent individual may be caused by a breach in the integrity of the mucosal lining of the colon from various causes and should alert the clinician to explore these causes in order to provide effective care.
Two hundred and sixty one patients attending a geriatric service were asked to give details of their usual medications without reference to drug bottles or written lists. Recall was tested in 4 categories: name of drugs, drug dosage, frequency of administration, and reason for the drug being prescribed. Drug recall was poor in all 4 categories, but particularly in respect of drug naming where only 10% of patients were able to give a complete list of their drugs. Out-patients were more knowledgeable about their medications than day hospital patients or inpatients. The rate of errors and omissions was correlated with increasing age, decreasing mental score, and to a lesser extent, number of drugs prescribed. Sixty-four percent of patients administered their own medications at home, and their ability to recall their medications was superior to that of other patients. The implications of the above findings are discussed.
An elderly woman presented with a lump in the right groin, clinically suggestive of a femoral hernia, but surgical exploration revealed a cystic mass of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Post mortem examination showed it to be a metastic deposit of carcinoma of the gall-bladder. Presentation of gall-bladder carcinoma as a femoral hernia has not been previously reported.
The provision of disability services for the elderly in Australia is fragmented with areas of duplication arising chiefly from disorganized planning with the States and Territories providing certain services independent of Commonwealth contribution. It is suggested that the Commonwealth should be responsible for the complete provision of disability services for the elderly comprising community services and residential care. Private providers competing with each other for efficient provision of such services should be sought with financial incentives in funding arrangements encouraging healthy ageing thereby reducing expenditure in health care in the next decades.