WEMJ Volume 111 No. 1 - March 2012

 

Editorial

The financial crisis affecting much of the World continues unabated. The focus at present is still on the Eurozone and this has given some respite to the dollar. But do not be fooled. The dollar, the pound and the euro are all in trouble. How does this relate to healthcare? Education and healthcare are often the first to go when fiscal policy gets tough. You only have to look at countries such as Kenya where responding to IMF demands may have saved the currency from inflation but led to a marked worsening in healthcare and deterioration in infant mortality and life expectancy.

This is issue includes a report on the lecture given to the Bristol Medico Chirurgical Society on the subject of Oil, Health and healthcare. In this lecture our speaker, eminent public health consultant Dr. Angela Raffle, talked about the effects of passing peak oil production. This ties in well with the present financial woes and may indeed be a significant contributory factor.

Also in this issue we continue our look at advances in radiology with an excellent article on the use of endosonography to guide transbonchial aspiration needle biopsy.

As usual we have included a report from the archives. This one is about priapism and the treatment sounds very severe!

Paul Goddard

 

1. Endobronchial Ultrasound-Guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration (EBUS-TBNA)

West of England Medical Journal Volume 111, Number 1, Article 1 March 2012  Medford ARL, Yousaf M

Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is an outpatient minimally invasive procedure which is increasingly used, over the last decade, as a technique to visualise and sample structures within and adjacent to the airways and the mediastinum. It is an evolving technique with many applications and is most widely used in staging and diagnosis of lung cancer and unexplained mediastinal lymphadenopathy. This article provides a simple overview of the procedure itself and its main clinical applications.

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2. ‘Oil, health and healthcare’  Report of the lecture by Dr. Angela Raffle

West of England Medical Journal Volume 111, Number 1, Article 2 2012 , Paul Goddard

The lecture by Dr Raffle on the passing of peak oil reviewed by Professor  Paul Goddard, the Hon. Secretary of the Bristol Medico Chirurgical Society

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3. From the Archives: A Case of Priapism by A H Boys December 1883

Excerpt "....I then pricked the penis all over with a fine needle; serum flowed abundantly. so I ordered hot bathing, poultices etc. hoping to encourage the flow of serum ....."  

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4.  From the Archives: Advertisements: December 1883

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Welcome to the West of England Medical Journal. This is the online journal of the Bristol Medico Chirurgical Society. The journal was formerly known as the Bristol Medico Chirurgical Journal and was first published in 1883.

This is a general medical journal and is available for everybody to read online. To access the issue please click on the link in the column to the left of this introduction.

Please see the Instruction for Authors if you wish to submit an article or send a letter.

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