RESUMEN
Congenital pouch colon (CPC) is highly uncommon congenital anorectal malformation where a distended pouch-like structure replaces either some part of the colon or the entire colon and communicates to the genitourinary tract through a fistula. Diagnosis of CPC is usually made after birth when neonate/infant presents with abdominal distension and absence of anal opening. Making antenatal diagnosis of CPC is difficult because of the lack of specific and verifiable signs on sonography. Hence, only a few cases of antenatal diagnosis of CPC have been reported.1,2 In our case, CPC was suspected on a routine antenatal growth scan ultrasound in the late third trimester, showing a hypoechoic tubular-shaped lesion in the pre-sacral region. With this suspicion, we suggested an institutional delivery at a tertiary level centre, and diagnosis of type III CPC was confirmed on post-delivery imaging and emergency primary surgery, done on the day 3 of life (pouch resection, division of fistula, and protective colostomy). The child also underwent further corrective surgeries in a staged manner in second year of life and recovered completely. Beforehand diagnosis prevented any unnecessary delay in operative care, reduced postoperative complications, and improved the overall outcome of this otherwise complex condition.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Chronic back pains are progressively disabling working individuals, including 60-80% of the general population, for which their diagnosis is challenging to healthcare workers worldwide, thereby becoming a burden to nations. PURPOSE: The study aimed to investigate the efficacy of core strengthening exercise (CSE) and intensive dynamic back exercise (IDBE) on pain, core muscle endurance, and functional disability in patients with chronic non-specific low back pain (LBP). METHODS: The study was based on a three-arm parallel-group randomized control design. Forty-five participants with chronic non-specific LBP were recruited and randomly divided into the CSE, IDBE, and Control groups. The CSE and IDBE groups received CSE and IDBE, respectively. However, the Control group received no intervention. Numeric pain rating scale, Oswestry Disability Index, core flexors, extensors, and side bridge tests assessed pain intensity, functional disability, and endurance of core muscles. Outcome scores for the dependent variables were collected at baseline (pre-intervention) and six-week post-intervention. There were no follow-up measurements in this study. A one-way multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to analyze the intervention effects on the outcomes within groups and between groups, respectively; keeping the significance-level alpha at 95%, i.e., p < 0.05. A univariate F-test was performed to observe the superiority of one treatment over another. Pearson's correlation coefficient test was conducted to determine a relation between the dependent variables. In all statistical analyses, the level of significance α was kept at 0.05. RESULTS: All forty-five out of sixty-three participants with chronic non-specific low back pain (male, 32 and female, 23; average age, 20.24 ± 1.46 years; average pain duration, 19.6 ± 5.42 weeks) completed the study and their data were analyzed. The MANCOVA test showed a significant difference between the treatment groups on the combined multiple endurance tests for the core muscles (flexors, extensors, side bridge tests to the right and left), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores after controlling for baseline scores of all the dependent variables: F (6, 12) = 23.381; p < 0.05; Wilks' Λ = 0.033; partial η2 = 0.819. A post hoc pair-wise comparison followed by a univariate F-test indicated that a significant improvement was found between the CSE vs. IDBE vs. Control groups on the post-test scores of all the dependent variables except VAS and EET (CSE vs. IDBE only). A Pearson's correlation coefficient test revealed a notable relation between the dependent variables. CONCLUSIONS: The experimental group CSE was found to be more effective than IDBE on improving functional disability, cores' flexors, and side bridges' endurance tests than IDBE. The magnitude of this improvement exceeded the minimal clinically important difference (MCID), suggesting a clinically relevant enhancement in functional disability, core flexors, and side bridge endurance for participants engaged in CSE. However, CSE vs. IDBE revealed non-significant differences on reducing pain and core extensors' endurance. The absence of statistically significant differences suggests that the observed changes did not exceed the established MCID for pain intensity and core extensors' endurance. In addition, partial eta-squared value revealed the superiority of CSE over IDBE and Control groups. This suggests that the observed differences between the two interventions are not only statistically significant, but also clinically relevant, surpassing the established MCID.
RESUMEN
A newborn delivered by Caesarian section presented with an absent anterior abdominal wall and visible bowel loops and liver. The defect was covered by a thin membrane. The patient had associated absent left lower limb and right foot fusion defect. The patient was haemodynamically stable; general condition was average. No genito-urinary abnormality was detected. The anal opening was present normally, and the patient passed meconium immediately after birth. A diagnosis of omphalocele major with amelia was made. The patient was initially managed by topical application of povidone-iodine for eschar formation and epithelisation of the sac. The patient was discharged after 1 week with advice for regular follow-up.
RESUMEN
Biliary atresia (BA) is a rare disease and the end result of a destructive, inflammatory cholangiopathy, leading to fibrosis and biliary cirrhosis. It is classified into syndromic variety with various congenital anomalies and non-syndromic (isolated anomaly). We present here a 1-month-old female child with the syndromic variety of BA associated with polysplenia syndrome, dextrocardia, situs inversus totalis and malrotation of intestines. She developed jaundice in the first week of life. Kasai operation was performed but she developed cholangitis and septicemia 2.5 months after surgery and succumbed later.
