The Negro Drug Addict as an Offender Type

A review of drug addict abscesses.

1) Abscess due to subcutaneous injection of heroin (skin-popping) are very common in inner city Dublin hospitals. (2) The most common sites are the antecubital fossa and deltoid regions of the arms and the buttocks. (3) The most common organism in this series of abscesses is staph aureus. One third of all abscesses had multiple organisms. In 90% of abscesses with multiple organisms a Streptococ...

Palliative care of the terminally ill drug addict.

Palliative care with terminally ill drug addicts is a major challenge for medical professionals to face. With growing problems of prescription drug abuse in this country, the problem is only going to continue to grow and be faced more often. To date, very little has been done focusing on this special population of end-of-life care patients. This review article attempts to explore the terminolog...

Right-sided endocarditis in the non-drug addict.

Fifteen patients with right-sided infective endocarditis during a 5 year period (1985-1990) were retrospectively reviewed. Isolated tricuspid valve involvement occurred in nine patients. Staphylococcus aureus was the causative organism in seven cases; four were culture negative. The diagnosis was established by two-dimensional echocardiography in 11 patients and at postmortem in the remaining f...

A confused drug addict: the importance of considering sepsis.

The case is reported of a 35 year old heroin addict presenting with acute confusion which was later found to be due to meningococcal meningitis. Other than his altered mental state, the only abnormal finding on examination was a mild pyrexia.

The motoring offender as a social problem.