South African Medical Journal - Volume 51, Issue 9, February 1977

Two hundred and eighty-seven patients referred to the National Research Institute for Occupational Diseases with suspected pneumoconiosis are recorded.

A battery of tests was applied to 60 patients at periods varying from 2 to 24 months after they had undergone truncal vagotomy (42 with pyloroplasty, 18 with gastro-enterostomy).

Urine and stool specimens from 856 school children aged from 7 to 20 years, and from 80 preschool children, were examined for Schistosoma haematobium and intestinal helminths and protozoa. S. haematobium was present in 57% with a peak of 81% in 13 - 14-year-old children.

Amniotic membrane dressings were tested in the treatment of 30 patients.

Antibiotics of various kinds were added to the powdered polymer of methylmethacrylate in a concentration of 1 g antibiotic/40 g cement, prior to the addition of the liquid monomer.

A simple technique for inducing sputum production with vaporized 15% aqueous NaCI is descriptionbed.

Two cases of rhinosporidiosis are reported from Natal.

An innovative programme in undergraduate medical education, developed at the McMaster Medical School in Hamilton, Canada, is descriptionbed.