Congenital Limb Deficiency: A Case Report.

The complete absence of limbs is a rare occurrence. Though the causes are various, it is hard to elicit most of the time. They are usually diagnosed via anomaly scan but the lack of access to the same can often lead to a term presentation. It is still not uncommon to receive pregnant patients at term to the hospital or in labour as the first antenatal visit. Increasing the feasibility of the scan can help in the early diagnosis and management. Here, we report a rare combination of limb defects that we managed in a district-level hospital and highlight the difficulties in the management and referral of the patients while working in rural areas. Keywords: amelia; antenatal care; congenital limb deformities; fetal ultrasonography.

A Comparative Study of Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha and Alvarado Scores to Diagnose Acute Appendicitis.

BACKGROUND: Acute Appendicitis is a clinical diagnosis with atypical presentation in young, elderly, females, genitourinary and gynecological conditions. Delayed appendectomy increases the risk of appendicular perforation, sepsis morbidity and mortality. Literature reports as high as 20-40% negative appendectomy. Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha score has come with higher sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy than Alvarado score in Asian population. This study aims to compare RIPASA and Alvarado score for diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: Appendectomy patients at Patan Hospital from April to September 2014 were compared on raja isteri pengiran anak saleha (cut-off value 7.5 out of 15) and Alvarado score (cut-off value 7 out of 10). Final diagnosis was histopathology based. Microsoft Excel and SPSS 17 were used for analysing sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of both scores. The study included patients who underwent appendectomy with histopathology report and excluded those with conservative management, generalized peritonitis, appendicular lump and abscess. RESULTS: There were 88 appendectomy patients with median age 26 (18.25, 35) years, and male 52 (59.1%). Negative appendectomy was 10 (11.36%). Sensitivity and specificity of Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha 98.71% and 80.00% respectively, and for Alvarado 52.56% and 70%.The Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha score had statistically significant sensitivity (p=0.000). Positive Predictive value, Negative Predictive Value and diagnostic accuracy were 97.46%, 88.89% and 96.6% for RIPASA and 93.18%, 15.19% and 54.4% for Alvarado respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha score had better diagnostic accuracy compared to Alvarado score for diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis.

Newborn Service Readiness of Primary Level Health Facilities of Eastern Mountain Region of Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Newborn service readiness is facility's observed capacity to provide newborn services and a pre-requisite for quality. Newborn services are priority program of government and efforts are focused on infrastructure and supplies at peripheral health facilities. Study describes health facility readiness for newborn services in four domains of general requirements, equipment, medicines and commodities, and staffing and guidelines. METHODS: Convergent parallel mixed method using concurrent triangulation was done in public health facilities providing institutional deliveries of two randomly selected districts- Taplejung and Solukhumbu of Eastern Mountain Region of Nepal. Face to face interview and observation of facilities were done using structured questionnaire and checklist; in-depth interviews were done using interview guideline from November 2016 to January 2017. Ethical clearance was taken. Descriptive analysis and deductive thematic analysis were done. RESULTS: Mean score of newborn service readiness was 68.7±7.1 with range from 53.3 to 81.4 out of 100. Domains of general requirement, equipment, medicine and commodity, supervision, staffing and guideline were assessed. The gaps identified in general requirements were availability of uninterrupted power supply, means of communication and referral vehicle. Clean wrappers and heater for room temperature maintenance were identified during interviews to be part of the readiness. All health facilities had trained staff while retention of skill was of concern. There was felt need of enforcing adequate training coverage to suffice the need of human resources in remote. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts of improving transportation, heater for room temperature maintenance, trainings with skill retention strategy, utilization of guidelines, availability of skilled birth attendance could result increased and improved newborn service readiness.