Irish journal of medical science
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Various types of ureteric stents are used in the management of ureteric stones. Stents on strings (SOS) are an attractive option as they may be removed without the need for instrumentation. There is some hesitation using SOS due to perceived complications and the risk of premature dislodgement. The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of SOS compared with the conventional stent (CS). ⋯ The SOS appeared to be well tolerated and showed similar complication rates as the CS. The use of SOS resulted in a significant cost saving and increased the availability of cystoscopy for other indications.
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Social inclusion is a complex concept, and its relationship to health has been widely debated. Across the European Union, there has been a move towards policies promoting social inclusion. Despite this, there has been a limited analysis of how the concept of social inclusion is operationalised in Irish policy. The aim of this research was to document and map the development of social inclusion policies in the Irish context. The objectives were to identify all the relevant stakeholders and policies and to describe the relevance of social inclusion policy in the domain of health. ⋯ The concept of social inclusion was being operationalised in the Irish policy context. A multitude of stakeholders were involved, reflecting the wide reach of this concept in society. Social inclusion was a particularly important concept in the realm of health, and in the primary care domain in particular.
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The high incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children, combined with the challenges in diagnosis and treatment options, the difficulty of predicting the outcome of each case, and also the wide variety of possibly lifelong complications, has led to an extraordinary number of published papers regarding this topic. This bibliometric analysis is aimed at identifying and reviewing the 100 most cited papers in the most challenging and trending aspects of pediatric traumatic brain injury. ⋯ By reviewing those highly cited papers, we sought to offer significant help not only for studying this challenging field but also for designing new studies.
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Ureteric stents are frequently placed following endo-urological procedures. These stents cause significant morbidity for patients. Standard ureteric stents are removed by flexible cystoscopy. This procedure can be unpleasant for patients and requires additional resources. A newly designed magnetic stent allows removal in an outpatient setting. The aim of our study is to compare the magnetic stent and standard ureteric stents with regard to morbidity, pain on stent removal and cost-effectiveness. ⋯ Magnetic stents cause similar morbidity for patients compared with standard stents removed by flexible cystoscopy; they are associated with less pain at removal and are cost saving.
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Thyroid dysfunction (TD) occurs in 13.4% of diabetic patients, which has prompted recommendations for annual thyroid screening in patients with diabetes. However, recommendations for annual screening should be based on disease incidence rather than prevalence. ⋯ Our data confirms the high prevalence of TD in diabetic patients, in concordance with the results from other series. We found only 25 treatable cases of new thyroid disease from 639 patients in the 8-year follow-up, less than 0.5% per year. The low incidence of treatable thyroid disease challenges the need for annual screening for thyroid abnormalities in patients with type 2 diabetes.