Student’s perception of creative study guide posters in pharmacology: The Kurukshetra model

Background: One of the major challenges for pharmacology teachers is how to capture students’ interests and engage them in the subject, to create an engaging and enjoyable learning process. “Creative study guide posters” is one such novel educational tool that can help achieve these goals. Aims and Objectives: The authors tried to recreate visual artwork in the subject of pharmacology to engage students and at the same time make learning easy and fun-filled. Materials and Methods: In this study, 2nd year medical students participated and prepared creative study guide posters on antimicrobials and microbes in the form of two armies. On the one hand, antimicrobial drugs depicted the good army, consisting of the name of the drug, drug group, and mechanism of action, while on the other hand, the microorganisms depicted the evil army, consisting of the names of the common microbes, representing the battle of Kurukshetra as in the Indian epic of Mahabharata. Results: The majority of the students found this model interesting and useful for revising antimicrobials. About 82.3% of students agreed that their concepts of antimicrobials improved after this activity. About 86.46% of students believed that this model would foster interactive learning. Only 65.63% of students felt that the traditional methods of revising topics were better than this activity. Conclusion: Creative instruction encourages students to think independently, paricipate actively, and express themselves freely. Creative study guide poster activities help with better student engagement, reinforcing concepts, and better retention than just passing information passively in classrooms.

Primary vesical actinomycosis with changes of cystitis cystica presenting as bladder mass

Actinomycosis is a rare chronic granulomatous suppurative infection caused by Gram-positive bacteria. The occurrence of primary vesical actinomycosis is extremely rare and only a few cases have been reported. Pre-operative diagnosis of vesical actinomycosis is challenging as the clinical and radiological features usually point towards bladder malignancy. Therefore, in most cases, definitive diagnosis is usually made after histopathological examination of the involved tissue. A 60-year-old male presented with complaints of hematuria, burning micturition, irritative, and obstructive urinary symptoms for 15 days. USG revealed a large soft-tissue mass having a polypoidal intraluminal and extraluminal component and involving the right posterolateral urinary bladder wall. CT scan showed a large irregular soft-tissue mass with multiple cystic lesions involving the right lateral wall of the urinary bladder. Transurethral resection of bladder mass biopsy was performed and the histopathological examination showed bacterial colonies of Actinomyces with changes of cystitis cystica. The patient was treated with amoxicillin and potassium clavulanate for 3 months. Actinomycosis should be kept as a rare differential diagnosis in cases presenting as bladder mass. The diagnosis is most commonly made by histopathology and may need a repeat biopsy to arrive at the correct diagnosis. The patient should be treated by penicillin group of antibiotics for 2–3 months and followed up for years to detect any recurrence