Spinal cord injury following chiropractic manipulation to the neck.

Spinal cord injury is a rare complication of chiropractic treatment. This case report describes a 50-year-old man who developed neurological symptoms a few hours after manipulation (high velocity low amplitude [HVLA] technique) of the cervical spine. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the cervical spine revealed intramedullary high signal at the C2/3 level of the right side of the cervical cord on the T2-weighted images. The potential mechanism of injury and causes of the radiological appearance are discussed.

Effects of Combined Anti-Hypertensive and Statin Treatment on Memory, Fear Extinction, Adult Neurogenesis, and Angiogenesis in Adult and Middle-Aged Mice.

Hyperlipidemia and hypertension are modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline. About 25% of adults over age 65 use both antihypertensives (AHTs) and statins to treat these conditions. Recent research in humans suggests that their combined use may delay or prevent dementia onset. However, it is not clear whether and how combination treatment may benefit brain function. To begin to address this question, we examined effects of atorvastatin, a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor, and Captopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), administration on memory function, anxiety-like behavior, adult hippocampal neurogenesis and angiogenesis in adult and middle-aged male C57Bl/6J mice. In adult mice (3-months-old) combination (combo) treatment, as well as administration of each compound individually, for six weeks, accelerated memory extinction in contextual fear conditioning. However, pattern separation in the touchscreen-based location discrimination test, a behavior linked to adult hippocampal neurogenesis, was unchanged. In addition, dentate gyrus (DG) neurogenesis and vascularization were unaffected. In middle-aged mice (10-months-old) combo treatment had no effect on spatial memory in the Morris water maze, but did reduce anxiety in the open field test. A potential underlying mechanism may be the modest increase in new hippocampal neurons (~20%) in the combo as compared to the control group. DG vascularization was not altered. Overall, our findings suggest that statin and anti-hypertensive treatment may serve as a potential pharmacotherapeutic approach for anxiety, in particular for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients who have impairments in extinction of aversive memories.

Improving medical SHO weekend handover at a tertiary referral centre.

The GMC states that, 'You must be satisfied that, when you are off duty, suitable arrangements have been made for your patients' medical care…including effective hand-over procedures' [1]. The medical weekend handover system at this tertiary referral centre involved multiple pieces of paper with no clear list of tasks, and no way to identify critically unwell patients. Patients could be missed from the ward round or could be difficult to identify under pressure. The authors felt this process could pose a threat to patient safety so decided to improve it. A questionnaire was distributed to all 11 medical SHOs with 100% response rate. Results showed that 72% thought the process was unstructured, 81% did not think the process was always safe, and 100% thought it could be improved. After discussions with senior medical management and with the approval of the trust audit committee, a new weekend handover proforma was designed, taking into consideration the results and comments from the questionnaire. The new proforma is accessible through a shared drive, which can be accessed by all medical SHOs in the hospital. Each team is able to copy their patients onto the combined ward-based list. There are columns for specific weekend jobs and registrar/SHO reviews. Any potentially unwell patients are highlighted in bold and discussed with the on-call SHO on Friday. All medical SHOs were given a post-implementation questionnaire after the new handover process had been in place for two months. Results of this showed that 100% of SHOs felt an improvement had been made, with 100% stating that the new system was more structured (64% always, 36% most of the time). The SHO's perception of patient safety increased from 81% generally unsafe, to 100% generally safe. The new handover has been well received and supported by the current SHO cohort. Improvements in the structure of handover have been made with perceived improvements in patient safety. Due to the success of the system, the handover proforma is being implemented in the trust's sister hospital.