Childhood fractures requiring inpatient management.

INTRODUCTION: Fractures account for significant morbidity during childhood. Children requiring inpatient management for their fractures represent the most serious injuries. The aim of this study was to identify injury patterns in childhood fractures requiring inpatient management at a regional trauma centre. METHODS: Three thousand and forty two consecutive injured children were admitted to our orthopaedic centre over a 4-year period. Data was prospectively collected by independent audit clerks and entered onto a database. Data recorded included type of injury, mechanism of injury and place of injury. This was then used to assess injury patterns and trends. RESULTS: Upper limb and lower limb fractures accounted for 51% (n=1,565) and 21% (n=637) of all emergency admissions, respectively. Other causes included soft tissue injury, Infections, Polytrauma and Dislocations. Twice as many males were admitted with upper or lower limb fractures compared to females (67% versus 33%) (P<0.001). Males were more likely to be older (P<0.001) compared to females. Distal radial fractures accounted for 60% of upper limb fractures. Distal and midshaft tibial fractures accounted for 52% of lower limb fractures. Sports injuries were responsible for the majority of lower limb fractures with falls accounting for the majority of upper limb fractures. Fracture incidence peaked during summer months. CONCLUSION: Males are twice as likely to require inpatient management for fractures as females. Male adolescents are particularly at risk. Distal radial fractures following falls and distal tibial fractures following sports injuries are the most common fractures requiring admission. Identifying ways of minimising risk of these injuries would reduce childhood morbidity.

Paleolakes on Mars.

Observational evidence such as outflow channels and valley networks suggest that in the past there was flowing water on Mars. The images of fluvial features on Mars logically suggest that there must exist downstream locations in which the water pooled and the sediment load deposited (i.e. lakes). Sediments and morphological features associated with the martian paleolakes are believed to occur in Valles Marineris, and several large basins including Amazonis, Chryse and Elysium planitia. As Mars became progressively colder over geological time, any lakes on its surface would have become seasonally, and eventually perennially ice-covered. We know from polar lakes on Earth that ice-covered lakes can persist even when the mean annual temperature falls below freezing. Thus, the most recent lacustrine sediments on Mars were probably deposited in ice-covered lakes. While life outside of the Earth's atmosphere has yet to be observed, there is a general consensus among exobiologists that the search for extraterrestrial life should be based upon liquid water. The inference that there was liquid water on Mars during an earlier epoch is the primary motivation for considering the possibility of life during this time. It would be of enormous interest from both an exobiological and paleolimnological perspective to discover lakes or the evidence of former lakes on another planet such as Mars. Limnology would then become an interplanetary science.

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection: clinical, pathological and virological studies of two fatal cases.

Two infants severely ill at birth as a result of congenital cytomegalovirus infection were born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in April and July 1968. Both died within seven weeks. Clinical, pathological and virological studies including serology and electron microscopy were made both before and after death. Cytomegalovirus was isolated in tissue culture from urine specimens from both infants during life and from organ tissues, blood and ascitic fluid after death. Large inclusion-bearing cells mixed with the erythrocytes and leukocytes were seen within the lumina of pulmonary blood vessels. A brief general discussion is presented of the various clinical manifestations of congenital cytomegalovirus infection and of the different serum antibody patterns found in these two pairs of mothers and infants.