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Masters Degrees (Surgery)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Surgery) by Author "Clarke, Damian Luiz."

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    Laser doppler assessment of gastric mucosal blood flow in normals and its relationship to the systemic activity of growth peptides in healing and non healing gastric ulcers.
    (1999) Clarke, Damian Luiz.; Thomson, Sandie Rutherford.
    The pattern of mucosal blood flow in normal human stomachs, and benign gastric ulcers was assesed with laser Doppler flowmetry and the relationship between a single determination of ulcer blood flow and the systemic level of growth factors was investigated. A significant ascending gradient in mucosal blood flow from the antrum to fundus was demonstrated. Different levels of cellular activity in the regions of the stomach may explain this gradient. In the gastric ulcers that healed on standard medical therapy mucosal blood flow was significantly increased in comparison to normal stomachs. In the ulcers that were refractory to standard medical therapy mucosal blood flow was significantly lower than in normal stomachs and healing ulcers. Higher systemic levels of the growth factor bFGF were demonstrated in healing ulcers compared to non-healing ulcers. Gastric mucosal blood flow can increase in response to the increased metabolic demands of healing, however impairment of this response may be an important factor preventing healing of benign gastric ulcers. It would appear that non-healing of gastric ulcers can be predicted at initial diagnosis by reduced peri-ulcer gastric mucosal blood flow and low blood levels of bFGF.
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    A prospective audit of the use of diagnostic laparoscopy to establish the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis.
    (2011) Islam, Jahangirul.; Wilson, Douglas Paul Kinghurst.; Dawood, Halima.; Thomson, Sandie Rutherford.; Clarke, Damian Luiz.
    HIV epidemic is one of the major challenges to the South Africa’s socio-economic development. The incidence of tuberculosis is rising in sub-Saharan Africa, and in 2009 South Africa had the second highest incidence of tuberculosis in the world. Approximately 80% of incident tuberculosis cases in South Africa are HIV positive. In HIV positive individual, abdominal tuberculosis has been reported as the most common form of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. HIV/AIDS has resulted in a resurgence of abdominal tuberculosis in South Africa. Making the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis is still difficult, though the condition is common. The role of laparoscopy in making the diagnosis is undefined. Method: All patients with clinically and radiologically suspected but histologically or microbiologically unconfirmed abdominal tuberculosis were referred to the investigating team and laparoscopy was performed to diagnose abdominal tuberculosis. Histology was performed on tissue biopsy specimens and TB culture on ascitic fluid and peripheral blood specimens. Results: From January 2008 to June 2010 a total of 190 patients were referred to us. No surgical intervention was taken in 60 patients; all of them were HIV positive. Twenty six of them died (43%) in the hospital during the evaluation period before the diagnostic laparoscopy, and the rest (57%) were unfit for anaesthesia. Forty nine patients required emergency laparotomy either for bowel obstruction or peritonitis and 39% of them died. Eighty one patients underwent diagnostic laparoscopy and 77% of them were HIV positive, in 16% the HIV status was unknown. Two percent had clinical ascites. Laparoscopic findings included intra-abdominal lymphadenopathy in 56, minimal ascitic fluid in 46, intra-abdominal mass in 17, and deposits on bowel wall, peritoneum or omentum in 20 patients. Fifty five patients (68%) had positive histology for tuberculosis. In 15 patients (19%) histology revealed non-specific inflammation, no pathology was found in one patient and no specimen was taken from one patient. Eighty percent of peritoneal deposits and 77% of lymph nodes were positive for tuberculosis, whereas 35% ascitic fluid culture was positive. In nine patients (11%) an alternative diagnosis was found (appendicitis, adenocarcinoma, lymphoma). Conclusion: Laparoscopy was feasible and showed a high yield to establish the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis and to provide an alternate diagnosis. Laparoscopy was useful to establish the gross features of abdominal tuberculosis and to provide the adequate specimens for examinations. Very poor follow negated the evaluation of the clinical response to anti tuberculosis therapy.
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    Spectrum and cost of road traffic crashes : data from a regional South African hospital.
    (2014) Parkinson, Frances.; Clarke, Damian Luiz.; Aldous, Colleen Michelle.
    Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are a worldwide phenomenon, but a disproportionate number of deaths and injuries caused by RTCs occur in developing countries. A number of international organisations have drawn attention to the problem and called for a comprehensive public health response. Such a programme needs to be multi-faceted and use preventative and therapeutic strategies and also involve a wide range of stakeholders from government and civil society. In South Africa, the Province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has the worst record for the number of deaths and injuries sustained on the roads. Despite the urgent need for such programmes in the Province there is a paucity of local research on the problem. This project sees itself as part of an ongoing systematic comprehensive quality improvement initiative. The objectives of this single-centre study are to determine common patterns of injury associated with road traffic crashes in KZN, to identify risk factors which may be targeted by specific injury prevention programmes and to establish the in-hospital cost of RTCs. This will be done by identifying a cohort of patients with injuries sustained in RTCs, gathering data on their injuries and circumstances of the crash, and costing their inpatient stay using micro-costing methods. It is hoped that this information on the burden of disease (including cost) will be incentive for investment in local healthcare and risk-reducing measures (relevant to local risk factors). The costs may also serve as a baseline for larger province-wide costing studies.