Pulmonary damage caused by lamotrigine.

This is the first Japanese case of pulmonary damage caused by lamotrigine.

A case of lateral medullary infarction with severe dysphagia and worsening of respiratory failure in the chronic phase of recovery.

Patients with lateral medullary infarction (LMI) sometimes present with respiratory failure in the acute or subacute phase. We experienced a LMI patient with progression of respiratory failure that required bilevel positive airway pressure in the chronic phase. LMI patients must be carefully observed even in the chronic phase of recovery.

[The present status and the future prospects of the medical network--from the standpoint of a community hospital].

Our hospital receives elderly patients who are disabled and have dementia, dysphagia, infectious diseases, and/or decubitus from acute hospitals. We treat, rehabilitate, and return those patients to their home. For this purpose we have many rehabilitation staff and several teams such as a nutrition support team, an infection control team, and a decubitus control team. Hospitals treating acute conditions do not have enough rehabilitation staff, and frail elderly patients tend to suffer a decrease in their activities of daily living. Therefore a close relationship between hospitals treating acute conditions and rehabilitation hospitals is important to avoid disuse syndrome. We also treat in-home patients. Those patients are often more disabled and financially burdened than in previous years. Therefore they need more help from the medical and social welfare system of Japan.