CHARLES TRUAX, The mechanics of surgery, comprising detailed descriptions, illustrations and lists ofinstruments, appliances andfurniture necessary in modern surgical art (1899), with an Introduction by James M. Edmonson, Norman Surgery Series, No. 1, San Francisco, Norman Publishing, 1988, 8vo, pp. xliii, 1024, illus., $145.00. This reprinted reference book is much more than Chicago-based Trua...

OBJECTIVE To document the development of aortic regurgitation following occlusion of a patent arterial duct. DESIGN Case series involving nine children referred for surgical ligation of an isolated patent arterial duct. SETTING Academic referral centre. METHODS A preoperative transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiogram was performed in theatre to look for aortic regurgitation. There...

BACKGROUND This study aimed at comparing total i.v. anaesthesia (TIVA) with monitored anaesthesia care (MAC) during day-surgery operative hysteroscopy regarding: operation time, time to mobilization and discharge, and patient satisfaction. METHODS Ninety-one healthy women were randomized to MAC with paracervical local anaesthesia and remifentanil or to TIVA with propofol and remifentanil. Tim...

IZINDABA A Vereeniging theatre sister has resigned rather than meet Kopanong Hospital's insistence that she scrub for all theatre evacuations, including those involving 'clean ups' after messy abortions. Sister Wilhelmein Charles is the sole remaining objector among more than two dozen theatre colleagues who signed a petition in 2000 refusing to conduct or be associated with terminations of pre...

Recently we have built the largest Virtual Reality (VR) theatre in the world for the Kyongju World Culture EXPO 2000. Unlike single user VR systems, the VR theatre is characterized by a single shared screen and controlled by a kind of tightly coupled user inputs from several hundreds of people in the audience. The large computer-generated stereo images by the huge cylindrical screen provide the...

This article reports on a pilot study of the use of applied theatre in the dissemination of health research findings and validation of data. The study took place in South Africa, as part of the Southern Africa Stroke Prevention Initiative (SASPI) and was based at the University/Medical Research Council Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (also known as the Agincourt Unit). ...

Almost every aspect of anaesthetic and intensive care practice can be taught within the operating theatre and intensive care unit. This includes knowledge in the areas of medicine, anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, measurement and statistics, invaluable psychomotor and global skills and abilities, as well as the many important non-clinical aspects of anaesthesia and intensive care including ef...

Addressing three current critical turns in gerontology, this article proposes the theatre as a fertile ground for various theoretical angles in age studies including the performative on and off stage, the narrative in the script and the critical questioning of age and ageism in the multiple realities of performance. Beginning from a shared site in the theatre, researchers may be able to establi...

One skill that trainees in neurosurgery need to gain early in their training is an appreciation of the ventricular system in the brain, and how to cannulate it in an emergency. The flow of cerebrospinal fluid can be obstructed in the ventricles by many pathological processes leading to a dangerous condition known as hydrocephalus. The pressure within the ventricles can rise leading to loss of c...