Background: Tracheostomy remains one of the most important procedures for airway emergency management, especially in a developing country where patients will not present until they are in acute airway obstruction. This study reviews all the tracheostomies performed in a suburban tertiary health institution in a developing country. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of patients who had tracheostomy over a 10-year period. Results: There were 52 tracheostomies performed on 36 males and 16 females with a male: Female ratio 2.3:1. Upper airway obstruction was the major indication (63.5%), with laryngeal tumor as the major cause (32.7%). Tracheostomy was performed as emergency in 76.9% and as elective in 23.1%. Majority (73.1%) of the emergency tracheostomies was done under general anesthesia and over 84% were temporary tracheostomies. There were 21.2% complications with tracheostomy dependence as the leading cause in 9.6%, followed by peri-stoma granulation in 5.8%. Conclusion: Upper airway obstruction remains the major indication for tracheostomy, with laryngeal tumor as the major cause. There is a need for increased awareness of the people through social campaigns and health education on the merits of early detection and improvement in health-seeking behaviors of the people.

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Smoking has become a trend among individuals nowadays and, thus a major health problem. Since a long time, smoking has been associated with problems like vascular stenosis, lung cancer, heart attack, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Experiments have shown that nicotine released by cigarette smoking has analgesic property. However, along with this, studies have also shown it to be a factor that causes musculoskeletal problems. Therefore, it becomes a matter of scientific concern. This review article will discuss about how smoking induces both acute and chronic pain. Also, it will enlighten us about the pharmacology and pathophysiology behind smoking-induced pain. Quitting smoking reverses or prevents most of its harmful effects. Therefore, smoking cessation plays an important role. We will also discuss about the various steps taken to help smokers quit the habit.

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Aim: To determine the utilization of dental indemnity insurance among oral health professionals in Mumbai city. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in February 2014. A total of 306 dental practitioners were selected as the study population by simple random sampling technique. The dental practitioners were visited by a single examiner and all the available and willing participants were given the close-ended questionnaire on the day of visit. The widely used questionnaire by "GLOBAL CHILD DENTAL FUND" for professional indemnity insurance was obtained from its website (www.gcdfund.org) and was modified according to the results of a pilot study. Chi-square was used to find the association of use of dental indemnity insurance by dental practitioners with age, gender, education, working sector, years of practicing dentistry, and whether dental practitioners know about dental indemnity insurance or not. Results: Significant association was found for dental indemnity insurance with increased age, education, years of practicing, private sector working dentist, and level of knowledge for indemnity insurance. 35.6% dentists felt it was not mandatory for each and every dentist, whereas 13.6% felt there was no need dental indemnity insurance. Conclusion : Most of the oral health practitioners in Mumbai city do not have dental indemnity insurance. So, there is a need of spreading knowledge and awareness to dental practitioners about the uses and benefit of dental indemnity insurance.

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Background: Trichomonas vaginalis infection is the most common curable, sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Serious adverse reproductive health outcomes including pregnancy complications, pelvic inflammatory disease, and an increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition have been linked to T. vaginalis infection. Objective: To determine the prevalence of T. vaginalis in asymptomatic pregnant women and their HIV status in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, northern Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional descriptive study conducted using a proforma to obtain demographic and reproductive health information from consenting pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic. Vaginal swab and blood samples were taken and analyzed for T. vaginalis and HIV, respectively. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) V17, with the level of significance set at 5% . Results: The overall prevalence of T. vaginalis was 19.2%. There was an inverse relationship between the level of education and acquisition of T. vaginalis infection in pregnancy; women having no formal education had a higher prevalence of the T. vaginalis infection (7.5%) as against those who had tertiary education (1.7%). The 26-30 years age group had the highest prevalence of both HIV infection (5.0%) and T. vaginalis infection (5.8%), strongly suggesting the possibility of co-infection between the two agents. There was a statistically significant association between T. vaginalis infection and HIV infection with a P value of 0.0003. The relative risk (RR) of acquiring HIV in the presence of T. vaginalis infection was 4 (RR: 4.193; Confidence Interval: 1.756-10.01). Conclusion: Improvement of the socioeconomic status and education of women, especially sexual health; will reduce the prevalence of T. vaginalis and HIV co-infection.

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Background: Use of smokeless tobacco in any form is the greatest threat to the global health today. It increases the risk of oral cancers, induces oral lesions at the site where tobacco is placed, and fosters nicotine addiction and dependence. The objective of the present study is to assess the relationship between moist snuff and oral mucosal lesions among individuals using moist snuff in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to assess the oral lesions among 384 moist snuff users in Jodhpur. Data collection was do ne by using pre-designed questionnaire, which included information regarding general data, type of moist snuff with and without calcium carbonate, duration and frequency of using moist snuff. The Axell's index was used to find the degree of severity of oral lesions. Dental abrasion, gingival recession, dental attrition, and dental erosion were also recorded. The parametric one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and stepwise regression analysis were done to narrate the relationship between variables of snuff use and oral mucosal conditions. Results: It was found that there was a significant correlation between the amount (P = 0.007, SD ± 1.348), frequency (P = 0.002, SD ± 1.348), and duration (P = 0.002, SD ± 1.348) of snuff use with oral mucosal lesions. Conclusion: The results reveal an association between the use of moist snuff and oral mucosal lesions.

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The corpus callosum is the largest bundle of commissural fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres. The human brain actually functions as two individual brains capable of highly organized mental functions. The dominant hemisphere deals with speech, written language, mathematics, and grammar, whereas the non-dominant hemisphere deals with music, pictorial representation, spatial and temporal synthesis. When this connection is divided surgically, the patient shows what are known as disconnection syndromes which can be classified as acute and chronic. Based on the review of literature, we have tried to deal with the symptom complex of patients who have undergone commissurotomy as treatment for multifocal epilepsy. A selective literature search using the internet and e-library facilities was performed on the topic. The work of great neuropsychologists like Roger Sperry and M. S. Gazzaniga was studied and the differences in functions of the dominant and non-dominant hemispheres were compared. Based on this literature search, it was found that the corpus callosum helps in interhemispheric transfer of information and it is the co-ordination between the two hemispheres which allows us to perform activities smoothly and perfectly. If this connection is severed, actions performed by one hand cannot be understood by another. It was seen that speech, calculation, reasoning, personality, and intelligence are almost completely preserved after commissurotomy. However, cognitive impairment, abstract reasoning, short-term memory, and attention deficits have been reported. All the studies carried out in this field have suggested that the separation of the hemispheres creates two different spheres of consciousness within a single cranium. By using the split brain model, it can be concluded that a normal person's mind is the result of interaction between two separate states of consciousness.

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