QUESTIONS How much upright mobilisation, particularly uptime, is performed in the first four days following upper abdominal surgery? In what part of the day is the greatest uptime achieved? Is length of stay related to uptime? Is there any difference in uptime in terms of postoperative factors? DESIGN Prospective observational study. PARTICIPANTS Fifty patients who had undergone upper abdom...

To investigate the effects of calcium disodium ethylenediamine tetra-acetate (CaEDTA) on the urinary excretion, erythrocyte, and plasma concentrations and exposure indicators of seven heavy metals, CaEDTA was administered by intravenous infusion to 20 workers exposed to lead, zinc, and copper. The workers' blood lead concentrations ranged from 22 to 59 micrograms/dl (mean 38 micrograms/dl (1.8 ...

Question: Does restriction of full shoulder mobilisation for one week reduce the incidence and severity of lymphoedema in women after axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for breast cancer? Design: Randomised, controlled trial with concealed allocation and blinded assessment of some outcomes. Setting: Two hospitals in the United Kingdom. Participants: Adult women with early breast cancer admit...

BACKGROUND In a participatory approach to health and development interventions, defining and measuring community mobilisation is important, but it is challenging to do this effectively, especially at scale. METHODS A cross-sectional, participatory monitoring tool was administered in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 across a representative sample of 25 community-based groups (CBGs) formed under the Ava...

The use of cervical manipulation presents concerns because of a risk of devastating side effects of trauma to the vertebral artery. Little is known about the frequency of use of cervical manipulation versus passive mobilisation by physiotherapists. A recent national, multi-centre randomised clinical trial of the physiotherapy management of cervicogenic headache provided an opportunity to gain a...

Early mobilisation initiatives within the critical care environment have been shown to improve outcomes for patients. Early mobilisation has been defined as occurring within the first two to five days of the intensive care stay, but in practice this can be difficult to deliver. We conducted a quality improvement (QI) project to deliver early mobilisation in a large general intensive care unit. ...