Posts Tagged ‘health facts’

When this occurs. part of the bowel twists on itself. The result is that the blood supply is suddenly cut off. This gains access to the bowel via the mesentery, a sheet of thin tissue that provides the bowel with its nutritional requirements. When this occurs, a closed-loop type of obstruction takes place. The immediate risk is that if complete, the bowel, devoid of its blood supply, may quickly die and become gangrenous and perforate. Peritonitis may quickly follow. Often the volvulus is not complete, and cases occur where it tends to come and go.

Sometimes symptoms come on rapidly, or they may be much slower. Symptoms simulate a bowel obstruction.

Volvulus Treatment

Acute cases must be surgically treated as an emergency. For chronic forms, more probable with older adults, decompression by a rectal tube may be possible. However, this again is in the province of the doctor, and any symptoms that indicate abdominal problems must receive prompt, expert medical attention. Delay may prove fatal.

One of the major changes in surgical care in recent years is the day-care centres. Here, the patient is admitted for one day (or part of a day) only. Many one-time major surgical operations have contracted to fairly “minor” procedures that can be completed in a short time.

With quick-acting general anaesthetics (or the use of local anaesthesia), a large amount of investigation and treatment can be quickly and expertly carried out. Theatres are often attached to the centres, with certain theatres being geared for a small, specific range of operations (eg endoscopic or colonoscopic surgery, eye surgery, various gynaecological or abdominal laparoscopic techniques). This not only reduces overall costs, but enables more patients to be treated in a shorter time. It appears to be the way of the future.

• Progress in medical science, better diet and improved hygiene have made the world a healthier place for many.
• How long people are likely to live is called life expectancy. In 1950, the world average was just 40 years. Now it is over 63 years.
• Life expectancy is usually high in richer countries. The Andorrans live on average for 83.5 years; the Japanese live for 80.8 years.
• Life expectancy is much lower in poor countries. People in Zambia live just 37.3 years; people in Mozambique live 36.45 years.
• Vaccination programs have reduced the effects of some major diseases. The terrible disease smallpox was thought to be wiped out in 1977.
• Some diseases are on the increase in poorer parts of the world. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is now killing huge numbers of Africans.
• In some parts of the world, disease, lack of food and water and poor healthcare mean that one child in every four dies before reaching the age of five in poor countries like Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. World geography
• In the USA and Europe less than one child in a hundred dies before the age of five.
• In wealthier countries such as Italy and Switzerland, there is on average one doctor for every 350 people.
• In most poor African countries, there is just one doctor for every 50,000 people.
• The first vaccination ever was given in 1796 by Edward Jenner. He used cowpox matter to vaccinate against smallpox.