The New Zealand medical journal
-
To assess the utility of blood cultures in the management of patients presenting to the Emergency Department at Christchurch Hospital from the community with non-facial cellulitis (or soft tissue infection) and no other morbidity. ⋯ Blood cultures are rarely positive in patients presenting from the community with non-facial cellulitis. When they are positive, initial empiric therapy is usually adequate to treat pathogenic bacteria. The available evidence does not support the routine use of blood cultures in the clinical management of healthy adults presenting with non-facial cellulitis at the Emergency Department.
-
To assess the utility of blood cultures in the management of patients presenting to the Emergency Department at Christchurch Hospital from the community with non-facial cellulitis (or soft tissue infection) and no other morbidity. ⋯ Blood cultures are rarely positive in patients presenting from the community with non-facial cellulitis. When they are positive, initial empiric therapy is usually adequate to treat pathogenic bacteria. The available evidence does not support the routine use of blood cultures in the clinical management of healthy adults presenting with non-facial cellulitis at the Emergency Department.
-
This article identifies published reports of medical undergraduate rural programmes from international medical schools and investigates the features making these programmes successful in recruiting and retaining rural physicians. ⋯ The effectiveness of a medical undergraduate rural programme in preparing and recruiting physicians for rural practice does not occur with one isolated strategy but with a chronological sequence of interventions. The most effective programmes consider both pre-medical school and medical school educational factors. Medical schools would need to implement a combination of these strategies when designing a programme to maximise success.
-
Chiropractic manipulation is mostly used for spinal problems but, in an increasing number of cases, also for non-spinal conditions. This systematic review is aimed at critically evaluating the evidence for or against the effectiveness of this approach. ⋯ Only very few randomised clinical trials of chiropractic manipulation as a treatment of non-spinal conditions exist. The claim that this approach is effective for such conditions is not based on data from rigorous clinical trials.