Sling for correcting uterine prolapse: twelve years experience.

Pelvic organ prolapse is a common morbidity among Bangladeshi women. Both patient and surgeon prefer vaginal hysterectomy for the treatment of this condition and occasionally they choose Fothergill's operation. Uterine suspension is suitable for the young women to preserve the uterus. This observational study was carried out in three teaching hospitals and two other non government hospitals for the period of 12 years among 280 patients with 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree uterine prolapse. Follow up done at 6th week , 6th month, 1st year, 5th year, 10th year and 12th year for recurrence of prolapse, dragging pain and dyspareunia. Among 280 patients >60% patients were of 26-30 years age group. In last follow up at 12th year 2(0.71%) women complained feeling of some descend of uterus, 1(0.36%) complained dragging pain in abdomen and I (0.36%) complained dyspareunia. All patients expressed satisfaction which indicates psychological well being. Uterine sling is an effective procedure to save uterus in young women to improve their quality of life.

Cough: meeting the needs of a growing field.

There has been a rapidly increasing volume of research undertaken in the field of acute and chronic cough at both basic scientific and clinical levels. However, until now there has been no journal dedicated to publishing work in this field. In this editorial, we introduce the new online, open-access journal entitled Cough which has been founded specifically for this purpose. We also review the clinical problems posed by acute and chronic cough and highlight some of the current issues that are being tackled by cough researchers.

Chronic idiopathic cough: a discrete clinical entity?

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Despite the success of specialist cough clinics, there is increasing recognition of a subgroup of chronic coughers in whom a diagnosis cannot be made even after thorough, systematic investigation. We call this condition chronic idiopathic cough (CIC). The aim of this study is to compare the clinical characteristics of CIC patients with those of coughers in whom a diagnosis has been established (non-CIC) to see if there is a recognizable clinical pattern that distinguishes CIC from non-CIC. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of the medical records of chronic cough patients. SETTING: The Royal Brompton Hospital Chronic Cough Clinic, London. PATIENTS: One hundred patients with chronic cough referred to the Royal Brompton Hospital Cough Clinic between October 2000 and February 2004. RESULTS: Seventy-one percent of all patients were female. Median age was 57 years (range, 19 to 81 years), with a median duration of symptoms of 48 months (range, 2 to 384 months). The primary diagnoses were CIC (42%), postnasal drip syndromes (22%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (16%), asthma (7%), and others (13%). In CIC patients, the median age at referral, age at onset of cough, and proportion of females did not differ significantly from non-CIC patients. CIC patients had a longer median duration of cough (72 months vs 24 months, p = 0.002), were more likely to report an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) as the initial trigger of their cough (48% vs 24%, p = 0.0014), and had a significantly lower cough threshold in response to capsaicin (log concentration of capsaicin required to induce five or more coughs, - 0.009 vs 0.592, p = 0.032) than non-CIC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with CIC commonly describe a URTI that initiates their cough, which then lasts for many years, and they demonstrate an exquisitely sensitive cough reflex. We believe that CIC may be a distinct clinical entity with an as-yet unidentified underlying pathology.