Military medicine
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Case Reports
A Bariatric Curveball: A Rare Case of Recurrent Lactobezoars after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery.
Bariatric surgery is a major risk factor for bezoar formation secondary to decreased gastric motility, gastric acidity, and pyloric function.1 This case is about a 49-year-old female veteran, 3 weeks status-post Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, who presented with acute abdominal pain and oral intolerance. After being diagnosed with a bezoar and esophagogastroduodenoscopic removal, the patient had immediate relief of symptoms. ⋯ Lactobezoars are composed of milk and mucous proteins and are commonly found in neonates with immature gastrointestinal tracts.7 This unusual complication demonstrates how current dietary recommendations encouraging dairy consumption to meet daily protein requirements may have increased this patient's risk for lactobezoar formation. This case illustrates the importance of balancing the risks and benefits of macronutrient requirements after bariatric surgery with postsurgical bezoar complications.
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HIV Care Continuum and Meeting 90-90-90 Targets: Cascade of Care Analyses of a U.S. Military Cohort.
The new initiative by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) aims to decrease new HIV infections in the U.S. by 75% within 5 years and 90% within 10 years. Our objective was to evaluate whether the U.S. military provides a good example of the benefits of such policies. ⋯ U.S. military HIV policies have been highly successful in achieving VS goals, exceeding the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets. In spite of limitations, including generalizability, this example demonstrates the feasibility of the DHHS initiative to decrease new infections through testing, early treatment, and retention in care.
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The ocular trauma score (OTS) is a widely used predictive tool in determining the visual prognosis of ocular injuries. Intraocular-foreign-body (IOFB)-type injuries comprise the leading type of open-globe injuries (OGI) in ocular combat injuries. However, there are scarce reports evaluating the efficacy of OTS in IOFB-type injuries. Only one study is available that explored the validity of OTS in combat-related IOFB injuries with a limited number of eyes. The aim of this study is to confirm the predictive value of OTS in lethal-weapon (LW)-related OGI with IOFB. ⋯ Visual outcome of this type of ocular injury may be unpredictable due to more frequent discouraging results. OTS failed to predict visual outcome in first three OTS categories in this study. Therefore, OTS appears to be verified only in better (OTS categories 4 and 5) categories.
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Anxiety toward dental treatment can lead to preventable morbidity, most notably oral pain and infection. This is of concern to the UK Armed Forces (UK AF), as dental care may not be immediately accessible during deployments and exercises, necessitating aeromedical evacuation. Current Defence Policy states that serving UK AF personnel requiring sedation to tolerate routine dental treatment are to have their Joint Medical Employment Standard (JMES) reviewed to restrict their deployability and employability. This article explores current sedation delivery, dentist opinion, and adherence to policy. ⋯ Civilian Dental Practitioners in the sample indicated that they were less likely to recommend a patient for JMES review, less likely to prevent patients from deploying and less likely to believe that individuals requiring sedation for routine treatment should not be recruited into the UK AF. These attitudes are contrary to current Defence direction and could increase the risk of UK AF personnel experiencing morbidity on deployment requiring aeromedical evacuation. Over the longer term, civilianization of Defence dentistry is likely to reduce collective operational experience and Defence must ensure that clinicians understand the management of anxious patients in the military context and their responsibilities in relation to JMES. Furthermore, policy limiting the recruitment of personnel with significant dental anxiety is not being robustly adhered to. Based on the number of dental procedures undertaken under IV sedation in the UK AF, consistent application of this policy would not affect recruitment at an organizational level, but would limit the risk of deploying these personnel. Further work is required to understand dental anxiety within the UK Armed Forces so that the operational morbidity risks can be quantified and provision appropriately planned.