-
Swanson posted an update 7 months, 1 week ago
These cases illustrate the importance of recognizing and treating drug-induced hypophosphatemia in a timely manner, and thus avoid the morbidity associated with this entity.The code of ethics of the Medical College of Chile was modified in December 2019. The amendment was mainly to article 8, which refers to the doctor’s duty to care for the pregnant woman and the child she is carrying. The change maintains this duty, but allows doctors to perform abortions, introducing three considerations that act as new principles or values for the medical profession the plurality of values existing in society, the autonomy of women and what is established by law. This paper is a reflection on codes of ethics, their relationship with values, and with legislation. Also it shows the consequences that this modification represents for the principles governing medical activity, the status of medical specialties, the commitment of doctors to their patients and the validity of the code of ethics.The catastrophic emergency experienced by many countries with the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of bioethics for decision-making, both at the public health (equitable and effective policies) and at the clinical level. At the clinical level, the issues are the fulfillment of medical care demand with adequate health care teams, infrastructure, and supplies, and to cover critical care demands that surpass the available resources. Therefore, ethically correct approaches are required for the allocation of life sustaining resources. There are recommendations for the allocating life support during disasters based on multiple considerations, including ethical ones. However, the ethical criteria of existing guidelines are variable. Ethical principles usually considered are saving the greatest number of lives, saving the greatest number of years of life and the principle of the life cycle or the goal to give each individual equal opportunity to live through the various phases of life. this website However, the centrality of the human being and the search for the common good should be considered. Knowledge of public perspectives and moral benchmarks on these issues is essential. A successful assignment effort will require everyone’s trust and cooperation. Decision making should be planned and discussed in advance, since in-depth deliberation will be extremely complex during the disaster. Our goal is to help the health care teams to wisely allocate resources in shortage periods.This article analyzes some publications of Ernestina Pérez Barahona (1865-1951), the second Chilean and Latin American female physician. It exposes her concern for the public health and, more precisely, for the problem of the Chilean race. She constantly refers to hygiene in her conferences, articles and books published between 1887 and 1920. Thus, the aim of this review is to recover her production and to inform the readers about her intervention as a medical professional.The Chilean Academy of Medicine designated a group of specialists to evaluate the practice and to propose reforms for organ donation and transplantation, due to the general insufficiencies at the national level with these procedures. In the last six years the mean number of organ transplants in Chile was 340 cases per year while effective cadaveric donors ranged between 6 and 10 per million inhabitants. These averages remained stable during this period and are among the lowest in the region. Our analysis attributed these deficient results mainly to low organ donation and inefficient procurement due to lack of compliance with protocols and little accountability. The committee proposes several measures for improvement. These are a systematic and obligatory report of potential organ donors by all emergency and critical care centers, frequent evaluation of results, empowering of health authorities to correct insufficiencies in organ procurement, education programs for primary, secondary, technical and university students to improve their knowledge about the social significance and solidarity required for transplantation policies and specialized updated training of all health professionals involved. Organ donation and transplantation must be based on clear and fair ethical considerations in order to be accepted by the general public.Hemophagocytic syndrome or hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a highly lethal hyper-inflammatory disorder that leads to a storm of cytokines, hemophagocytosis and multiple organ failure. It can be primary, which is inherited, or secondary. In the latter, virus infections are a frequent trigger, predominantly the family of herpes viruses, such as Epstein-Barr virus. An early treatment is recommended. Until recently there was no consensus about the management of secondary cases. The protocols for the treatment of primary HLH were used, which include cytotoxic agents and corticosteroids. We herein review the current diagnostic and therapeutic approach of HLH, based on a case associated with a reactivation of the Epstein-Barr virus in an immunocompetent adolescent. We highlight the importance of suspecting this disease in patients with a persistent inflammatory response state or with a fever of unknown origin, in order to carry out a timely treatment, with the least toxicity, and appropriate to the characteristics of each individual, which is the current therapeutic trend.Biomarkers in inflammatory bowel disease are an essential tool in clinical practice. They allow a non-invasive evaluation of patients and thus guide decision-making at different stages of the disease, including diagnostic suspicion, severity assessment, relapse prediction, and treatment response. Although biomarkers in blood such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein, are the most commonly used biomarkers, because their low cost and accessibility, they lack specificity. Currently, fecal biomarkers offer greater reliability, applicability, and specificity. Fecal calprotectin is the most commonly used marker. This review discusses the advantages and disadvantages of biomarkers in inflammatory bowel disease, as well as their clinical applications and new biomarkers currently under research.