Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item Should male doctors in Sri Lanka wear a necktie to be recognized and respected?(Open Learning on Enteric Pathogens, 2019) Abeysundara, P.K.; Nishad, N.; Balendran, K.; Pabasara, M.; Bandara, P.K.; Perera, N.M.; de Silva, H.; de Silva, S.; Umakanth, M.; Wijesinghe, P.INTRODUCTION: European cultural norms have influenced physicians' attire in Sri Lanka. The necktie is one such item of clothing which is worn to be recognized and respected as professionals. This study was carried out to assess the perceptions of doctors and patients towards male doctors wearing neckties while providing patient care. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from doctors and patients. RESULTS: The study included 105 doctors (57% males) and 333 patients (54% males). Mean ages of the doctors and patients were 37 years (95% C.I. 36-39) and 47 years (95% C.I. 45-49) respectively. Sixty-nine percent of the patients had completed secondary education or above. None of the patients were aware of the risk of spreading infections by wearing a necktie. Of the 41% of doctors who thought it was unnecessary to wear a necktie, 95% believed the necktie can spread infections. Ninety-five percent of patients believed doctors should wear neckties to be identified and respected and to maintain trustworthiness.CONCLUSIONS: None of the patients were aware of the possible risk of spreading infections by wearing a necktie, while most of the doctors who thought neckties were unnecessary also believed neckties can spread infections. Almost all patients thought that doctors should wear a necktie to be recognized and respected. Therefore, implementing a change in dress policy for doctors is a challenging task in Sri Lanka. KEYWORDS: doctors; hospital infections; neckties.Item Vaginal, sexual and urinary symptoms following Hysterectomy: A Multi-centre randomized controlled trial.(BioMed Central, 2020) Ekanayake, C.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Herath, R.; Wijesinghe, P.BACKGROUND: Hysterectomy is the most common major gynaecological procedure. The aim of this study was to study vaginal, sexual and urinary symptoms following total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH), non-descent vaginal hysterectomy (NDVH) and total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) in a low resource setting. METHODS: A multi-centre randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in two public sector hospitals in Sri Lanka. Participants were patients requiring hysterectomy for non-malignant uterine causes. Exclusion criteria were uterus> 14 weeks, previous pelvic surgery, medical illnesses which contraindicated laparoscopic surgery, and those requiring incontinence surgery or pelvic floor surgery.Vaginal, sexual function and urinary symptoms were assessed by the validated translations of ICIQ-VS and ICIQ-FLUTS questionnaires. Post-operative improvement (pre-operative - post-operative) was assessed. RESULTS: There was an improvement (median (IQ1-IQ3) in vaginal symptoms [TAH 6(2-8) vs 4(0-8), p < 0.001; NDVH 6(4-8.5) vs 5(0-8), p < 0.001; TLH 4(2-10.5) vs 4(0-10), p < 0.001], urinary flow symptoms [TAH 2(1-4) vs 1 (0-3), p < 0.001; NDVH 3 (2-5) vs 2 (0.5-4), p < 0.001; TLH 1(1-4) vs 1(0-3), p < 0.05], urinary voiding symptoms [TAH 0(0-0) vs 0(0-0), p = 0.20; NDVH 0(0-1) vs 0(0-0.8), p < 0.05; TLH 0(0-0) vs 0(0-0), p < 0.05] and urinary incontinence symptoms [TAH 0(0-2) vs 0(0-2), p = 0.06; NDVH 0(0-3) vs 0(0-3), p < 0.001; TLH 0(0-3) vs 0(0-2), p < 0.05] at 1-year (TAH n = 47, NDVH n = 45, TLH n = 47). There was an improvement in sexual symptoms only in the TLH group [TAH 0(0-11.5) vs 0(0-14), p = 0.08); NDVH 0(0-0) vs 0(0-0), p = 0.46; TLH 0(0-0) vs 0(0-4), p < 0.05].There was no significant difference among the three different routes in terms of vaginal symptoms score [TAH 2 (0-2), NDVH 0 (0-2), TLH 0 (0-2), p = 0.33], sexual symptoms [TAH 0 (0-0), NDVH 0 (0-0), TLH 0 (0-0), p = 0.52], urinary flow symptoms [TAH 0 (0-1), NDVH 0 (0-1), TLH 0 (0-2), p = 0.56], urinary voiding symptoms [TAH 0 (0-0), NDVH 0 (0-0), TLH 0 (0-0), p = 0.64] and urinary incontinence symptoms [TAH 0 (0-0), NDVH 0 (0-1), TLH 0 (0-1), p = 0.35] at 1-year. CONCLUSIONS: There was a post-operative improvement in vaginal symptoms and urinary symptoms in all three groups. There was no significant difference in pelvic organ symptoms between the three routes; TAH, NDVH and TLH. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Sri Lanka clinical trials registry, SLCTR/2016/020 and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, U1111-1194-8422, on 26 July 2016. Available from: http://slctr.lk/trials/515. KEYWORDS: Non-descent vaginal hysterectomy; Randomized controlled trial; Sexual symptoms; Total abdominal hysterectomy; Total laparoscopic hysterectomy; Urinary symptoms; Vaginal symptoms.Item Cost evaluation, quality of life and pelvic organ function of three approaches to hysterectomy for benign uterine conditions: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial(BioMed Central, 2017) Ekanayake, C.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Kularatna, S.; Herath, R.; Wijesinghe, P.BACKGROUND: Hysterectomy is the commonest major gynaecological surgery. Although there are many approaches to hysterectomy, which depend on clinical criteria, certain patients may be eligible to be operated in any of the several available approaches. However, most comparative studies on hysterectomy are between two approaches. There is also a relative absence of data on long-term outcomes on quality of life and pelvic organ function. There is no single study which has considered quality of life, pelvic organ function and cost-effectiveness for the three main types of hysterectomy. Therefore, the objective of this study is to provide evidence on the optimal route of hysterectomy in terms of cost-effectiveness by way of a three-armed randomized control study between non-descent vaginal hysterectomy, total laparoscopic hysterectomy and total abdominal hysterectomy. METHODS: A multicentre three-armed randomized control trial is being conducted at the professorial gynaecology unit of the North Colombo Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka and gynaecology unit of the District General Hospital, Mannar, Sri Lanka. The study population is women needing hysterectomy for non-malignant uterine causes. Patients with a uterus > 14 weeks, previous pelvic surgery, those requiring incontinence surgery or pelvic floor surgery, any medical illness which caution/contraindicate laparoscopic surgery and who cannot read and write will be excluded. The main exposure variable is non-descent vaginal hysterectomy and total laparoscopic hysterectomy. The control group will be patients undergoing total abdominal hysterectomy. The primary outcome is time to recover following surgery, which is the earliest time to resume all of the usual activities done prior to surgery. In total, 147 patients (49 per arm) are needed to have 80% power at α-0.01 considering a loss to follow-up of 20% to detect a 7-day difference between the three routes; TLH versus TAH versus NDVH. The economic evaluation will take a societal perspective and will include direct costs in relation to allocation of healthcare resources and indirect costs which are borne by the patient. A micro-costing approach will be adopted to calculate direct costs from the time of presentation to the gynaecology clinic up to 6 months after surgery. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) will be obtained by calculating the incremental costs divided by the incremental effects (time to recover and QALYs gained) for the intervention groups (NDVH and TLH) over the standard care (TAH) group. DISCUSSION: The cost of the procedure, quality of life and pelvic organ function following the three main routes of hysterectomy are important to clinicians and healthcare providers, both in developed and developing countries.