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Activating Code Crimson in the emergency department: Expediting definitive care for trauma patients with severe haemorrhage in Singapore

Public healthcare institutions (PHIs) in Singapore have a range of policies and guidelines for the management of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED)...

Nationwide study of the characteristics of frequent attenders with multiple emergency department attendance patterns

Emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a growing issue that threatens public health in various parts of the world,1 including the US,2 UK,3 Australia,4 Japan5...

Frequent attenders to multiple emergency departments in Singapore

The problem of overcrowding, of which access block is one of the main causes, continues to plague emergency departments (EDs) worldwide.1 Some of its...

Epidemiological trends and outcomes of children with aural foreign bodies in Singapore

Aural foreign bodies (FBs) commonly present to the emergency department (ED) worldwide. Children represent the majority of the population, believed to be due to...

Determinants of emergency department utilisation by older adults in Singapore: A systematic review

Older adults in Singapore contribute to a disproportionately higher number of visits to the emergency department (ED), mirroring trends around the world.1,2 For instance,...

Pre- and apnoeic high-flow oxygenation for rapid sequence intubation in the emergency department (the Pre-AeRATE trial): A multicentre randomised controlled trial

Critically ill patients in the emergency department (ED) have shorter safe apnoea times due to physiological distress from decreased cardiac output, increased shunting and...

A Review of Pedestrian Fatalities in Singapore from 1990 to 1994

Fatal road accidents are by no means uncommon in Singapore, a modern tropical metropolis with a population of approximately 3 million. Statistics provided by...

A Review of Patients with High-risk Carcinoma of the Cervix Treated with Combined Surgery and Postoperative Radiotherapy

It is generally accepted that early stage invasive carcinoma of the cervix, stage I to stage IIA disease, can be treated with equal effectiveness...

Bronchoscopy in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Flexible fibreoptic bronchoscopy (FFB) has become an indispensable tool in the optimal management of intensive care unit (ICU) patients with both diagnostic and therapeutic...

Use of Central Venous Lines in Paediatrics—A Local Experience

Peripheral access by venous cut down, once popular in the 1950s and 1960s, has almost become obsolete with the introduction of the Seldinger technique...

Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit for Poisoning

The study of poisoning has been relatively neglected in Singapore. A check through the Infogate database of the National University of Singapore Library revealed...

Survival after Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in the General Wards—The Results of a Dedicated “Code” Team

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is widely practised for cardiopulmonary arrests with variable success. The initial intention was to defibrillate patients with ventricular fibrillation after acute...

Soft Tissue Cover in Compound and Complicated Tibial Fractures Using Microvascular Flaps

Compound tibial fractures are high-energy traumatic injuries, which are frequently associated with high incidence of complications like infection and failure of bony union leading...

Excimer Laser Phototherapeutic Keratectomy for Recurrent Corneal Erosions

Recurrent cornea1 erosion (RCE) syndrome is a commonly encountered clinical condition which may be difficult to treat. Hansen first described it in 1872. This article...

Re-expansion Pulmonary Oedema Following One-lung Ventilation —A Case Report

A 15-year-old female patient weighing 40 kg with asymptomatic but severe scoliosis was admitted for correction of a skeletal deformity via a thoracoscopic anterior...

The Outcome of Trial Off Catheter after Acute Retention of Urine

Acute retention of urine (ARU) is the commonest urological condition requiring emergency admission to hospital and is usually managed by urethral catheterisation. Previously, patients...

1998 Distinguished Academician Lecture: Hepatic Resection— A Western Perspective

Although debridement of portions of liver that prolapsed through war wounds was recorded from distant times, attempts at resection of a solid liver tumour...

Extent and Appropriateness of Emergency Department Services Usage by Foreign Workers in Singapore

Singapore employs more than 350,000 foreign workers currently. With this influx of foreign workers into our city-state which has limited land and resources, it...

Drowning and Near-drowning—Some Lessons Learnt

Drowning is defined as suffocation from submersion in a liquid with death within the first twenty-four hours. Near-drowning implies that recovery has occurred, at...

Subcutaneous Emphysema and Pneumomediastinum after Endotracheal Anaesthesia

Pneumomediastinum is a well-recognised clinical entity. It may present either intraoperatively or postoperatively from a number of possible causes. This article is available only as...

The Predictive Value of Intraoperative ST-segment Monitoring as a Marker of Myocardial Injury

Patients with ischaemic heart disease have a high incidence of perioperative ischaemia resulting in an increased risk of cardiac events in the post-surgical period.1...

Preparing for the silver boom: A falls prevention tool for older adults in the emergency department

Each year, 28–35% of community dwelling adults over 65 years fall.1 This figure increases to about 50% for those above 80 years old.2 Falls...

Book Review

The above is a textbook of medicine written by Singapore doctors and published in Singapore. It is difficult not to be over-enthusiastic about it...

Quality of Life in Long-Term Survivors of Intensive Care

Intensive care has undergone rapid technological advancement in recent years enabling complex treatment of patients of advanced age and/or with advanced chronic diseases underlying...

Limitation of Life Support in the Critically Ill: The Hong Kong Perspective

Technological advances over the last 30 years have had an enormous impact on the way in which medicine is delivered today. This is particularly...

Intravenous Adrenaline or Vasopressin in Sudden Cardiac Arrest: A Literature Review

Of the approximately 15,000 deaths that occur in Singapore every year, about 25% are from cardiac causes; of which, some 30% to 40% occur...

A Review of Cutaneous Granulomas and Lupus Vulgaris Following BCG Vaccination in a Skin Hospital in Singapore

BCG vaccines are live vaccines derived from a strain of Mycobacterium bovis that was attenuated by Calmette and Guerin at the Pasteur Institute in...

A Twelve-year Review of Radical Cystectomies in Singapore General Hospital

Bladder carcinoma is the tenth most common cancer affecting men in Singapore. It is more common in men with an age-standardised incidence rate of...

Subdural Block—From a Spinal? A Case Report

There have been multiple reports of accidental subdural blocks published in the last 20 years. Majority of these have been the result of an...

Problems Related to Epidural Analgesia for Postoperative Pain Control

Epidural analgesia has been shown to provide excellent pain relief following thoracotomy, abdominal and other surgery. Studies have shown improvement in specific variables with...

Acute Coronary Syndrome—Factors Causing Delayed Presentation at the Emergency Department

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) refers to a continuum of clinical entities ranging from unstable angina pectoris (UAP) to Q-wave myocardial infarction. Mortality rates from...

The Acute Presentation of Pulmonary Thromboembolism: A Retrospective Viewpoint

Pulmonary thromboembolism (PE) has historically been considered a rarity in the Asian population. Although well studied in the West, Asian literature on this condition...

Two-year Outcome of Normal-birth-weight Infants Admitted to a Singapore Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

With the rapid advances in the field of neonatal intensive care, the focus of interest has been on the very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infant in recent...

Emergency Department Usage by Community Step-Down Facilities – Patterns and Recommendations

It is projected that elderly persons will make up 18.4% of Singapore’s population by the year 2030. Currently, there are 5189 residents staying in...

Critically Ill Elderly Who Require Mechanical Ventilation: The Effects of Age on Survival Outcomes and Resource Utilisation in the Medical Intensive Care Unit of a General Hospital

Increasing life expectancy and ageing of the “post-war baby boomer” generation have led to the rapidly ageing demographic of many Asian countries. Singapore’s elderly...

Bowel Surgery for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer – An Early Case Series

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death in patients with gynaecological malignancies in Singapore and developed countries, the main reason being the...

Changing Trends in Indications for Caesarean Sections in a Tertiary Hospital

Increasing rates of caesarean deliveries have received widespread attention in recent years and has increased widespread discussion in the public domain. The ideal caesarean...

Hepatic Resection for Colorectal Metastases to the Liver: The National Cancer Centre/Singapore General Hospital Experience

Colorectal carcinoma is the fourth most common malignancy and the second leading cause of death worldwide. Although surgical resection in combination with adjuvant chemotherapy...

Stress among emergency medicine residents during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

Dear Editor, The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted medical education1,2 and distressed clinicians.3,4 Understanding the impact of this pandemic on emergency medicine (EM) residents’ experience of...

Transurethral Resection of Prostate (TURP) Through The Decades – A Comparison of Results Over the Last Thirty Years in a Single Institution in Asia

Over the last 70 years, transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) has been used in the surgical treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and is...

Acute Isolated Sphenoid Sinusitis

Isolated infection of the sphenoid sinus is uncommon. It usually occurs in conjunction with infection of the other paranasal sinuses. Acute isolated sphenoid sinusitis...

Audit of Diagnostic and Interventional Craniocervical Catheter Angiographic Procedures at the Singapore General Hospital

Catheter angiography has long been considered the diagnostic standard by which the accuracy of other vascular imaging modalities are compared, given its superior contrast...

An Unusual Cause of Pulmonary Haemorrhage in a Patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Strongyloides stercoralis is an intestinal nematode which causes a chronic but usually asymptomatic infection in humans. However, in immunocompromised patients, parasitic larvae can develop...

Spectrum of Dentofacial Deformities: A Retrospective Survey

Deformity refers to distortion of any part of the body. The term dentofacial is related to the dental arches and their effects on facial...

Work-related Injury Sustained by Foreign Workers in Singapore

Singapore has a resident population of 3.26 million and 0.53 million foreign workers. Of these half a million foreigners, 450,000 are work permit holders,...

Can Long-term Corticosteroids Lead to Blindness? A Case Series of Central Serous Chorioretinopathy Induced by Corticosteroids

Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is an idiopathic disorder characterised by serous detachment of the macula, retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) detachment and areas of RPE...

Ethambutol-associated Optic Neuropathy

Tuberculosis (TB) has been present since ancient times. Around 460 BC, Hippocrates identified phthisis, which is the Greek term for consumption (TB seemed to...

Potentially Fatal Paracetamol Overdose and Successful Treatment with 3 Days of Intravenous N-acetylcysteine Regime – A Case Report

Paracetamol overdose is one of the most common drug overdose in both children and adults in Singapore. Doses of paracetamol exceeding 150 mg/kg in...

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: A Five-year Review at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odourless, tasteless and toxic gas and is the most abundant pollutant in the lower atmosphere. It is produced largely...

Clinical Cases Seen in Tsunami Hit Banda Aceh – From a Primary Health Care Perspective

Earthquakes and tsunamis can cause massive destruction over large areas, affecting the lives of many in areas hit by such disasters. The local health...

Swallowed Foreign Bodies in Children: Report of Four Unusual Cases

Foreign body (FB) ingestion in children is a frequent and frightening experience to the patients and caregivers. It is a common paediatric problem necessitating...

Neuro-developmental Deficits in Early-treated Congenital Hypothyroidism

This article is available only as a PDF. Please click on “Download PDF” on top to view the full article.

Neonatal Hepatic Abscess in Preterm Infants: A Rare Entity

Liver abscess has been recognised since the time of Hippocrates. The first report on liver abscess was published by Bright in 1836.1 However, reports...

A Review of Clinical Pathway Data of 1663 Total Knee Arthroplasties in a Tertiary Institution in Singapore

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has been established as an effective treatment modality for patients with symptomatic knee arthritis. It provides predictable decrement in pain,...

Observational Study to Determine Factors Associated with Blood Sample Haemolysis in the Emergency Department

Haemolysis of blood samples leads to inaccurate results and often necessitates a repeat sample. Escalating workloads and finite resources are an increasing problem in...

Obesity and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Hypopnoea Syndrome in Singapore Children

Obesity is becoming a problem of epidemic proportions and is perhaps, the most pervasive medical problem faced by medical providers today. It is a...

Contemporary Results of Endopyelotomy for Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction

Ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) results in the gradual dilatation of the renal collecting system, and may lead to deterioration of renal function and pain....

The Relationship between Postoperative Complications and Outcomes after Hip Fracture Surgery

Hip fractures constitute a major health concern for older persons and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality, with 1-year mortality rates ranging from...

Improving Door-to-balloon Times in Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Acute ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction: The Value of an Audit-driven Quality Initiative

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has been shown to be superior to thrombolytic therapy in terms...

Renal Artery Embolism in a Patient with Vague Abdominal Pain

Thromboembolism is a well-known complication of mitral stenosis especially when it is associated with cardiac dysrhythmias. However, renal artery embolism is a disease that...

Clinical Characteristics of Renal Infarction in an Asian Population

Renal infarction is a rare disease. Domanovits et al reported an incidence rate of 0.007% (17/248,842) during a study period of 45 months. This article...

Clinical Evaluation of Arthroscopic-assisted Allograft Meniscal Transplantation

The menisci of the knee are fibro-cartilaginous structures essential for the normal biomechanic of the knee joint. They play a critical role in shock...

Advanced Burkitt’s Lymphoma Presenting With Jejunal Perforation

Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL) is a high grade B-cell neoplasm under the umbrella of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. It is predominantly seen in children but may also...

Pattern and Outcome of Subsidised Referrals to Cardiology Specialist Outpatient Clinics

Singapore faces an increasing demand for public healthcare from an ageing population in need of chronic care. At our cardiology specialist outpatient clinics, the...

Measuring the Quality of Care of Diabetic Patients at the Specialist Outpatient Clinics in Public Hospitals in Singapore

Singapore is a country with a high prevalence of diabetes mellitus, 1 8.2% amongst its population aged between 18 and 69 years,2 and is...

The Role of Electrophysiology in the Diagnosis and Management of Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

Cervical spondylosis is an extremely common condition managed by both physicians and surgeons in daily clinical practice. Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), resulting from longstanding...

Arteriovenous Fistula Aneurysm – Plicate, Not Ligate

Arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) are created for haemodialysis in patients with end-stage renal failure. While AVF is a lifeline for these patients, its creation is...

The Role of Surgery in High-grade Glioma – Is Surgical Resection Justified? A Review of the Current Knowledge

High-grade glioma (malignant glioma) is the most common primary intra-axial tumour of the central nervous system (CNS). Despite recent therapeutic advances in glioma treatment,...

Epidemiology, Management and Treatment Outcome of Medulloblastoma in Singapore

Medulloblastoma (MBL) is the most common type of malignant brain tumour in childhood. It belongs to the group of tumours known as primitive neuroectodermal...

Perforated Appendicitis in Children: Benefits of Early Laparoscopic Surgery

Despite perforated appendicitis (PA) being a common surgical emergency in childhood, controversy still exists with regard to its management in this era of minimal...

Characteristics of unplanned hospitalisations among cancer patients in Singapore

Cancer is a pervasive global problem with growing healthcare utilisation and costs.1-3 This situation is similar in Singapore where cancer incidence is on the...

The case for better hospitalisation selection in cancer patients

Public hospital occupancy rates and resource utilisation in Singapore are perennially high. In the last 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been...

The Effect of Temperature on Illness Severity in Emergency Department Congestive Heart Failure Patients

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality around the world. It is estimated that more than 5...

Retinoblastoma: A Recent Experience at the National University Hospital, Singapore

Retinoblastoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in infants and children.1 Worldwide, the incidence is 1 in 18,000 to 34,000 live births with...

Peritoneo-Cutaneous Fistula Secondary to Skin Excoriation from a Large Chronic Incisional Hernia

Incisional hernias are common complications following abdominal surgery with an incidence of 2% to 20% after midline laparotomy. Umbilical fluid discharge is, however, an...

Reply from Author: Putting the Wedge under Pressure

We thank the authors for their interest in our study and their insightful comments. We agree that filling pressures such as the central venous...

Putting the Wedge under Pressure

We would like to thank Dr Huck Chin Chew et al for sharing their findings and we are appreciative of their work, “Oesophageal Doppler...

Development of a Diabetes Registry to Improve Quality of Care in the National Healthcare Group in Singapore

In the last decade, the use of electronic medical records (EMR) has been widely recommended as a method for reducing errors, improving the quality...

Epidemiology and Management of Surgical Upper Limb Infections in Patients with End-stage Renal Failure

Hand infections are common in the general population, and their management is usually uncomplicated. Several papers have noted that patients with diabetes mellitus have...

Epidemiology of Snakebites from A General Hospital in Singapore: A 5-year Retrospective Review (2004-2008)

Snakes are present even in an industrialised country like Singapore. A bite from a venomous snake can inflict much morbidity and occasionally, it can...

Are New Resuscitation Guidelines Better? Experience of an Asian Metropolitan Hospital

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a substantial public health burden that has poor prognosis. Patients who receive “good” and “high-quality” cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have...

An Eight Year Review of Exercise-related Cardiac Arrests

Exercise-related cardiac arrest is uncommon, however it is devastating when it occurs in otherwise healthy adults. In young adults, vigorous physical exercise trigger cardiac...

Brachial Approach for Coronary Angiography and Intervention: Totally Obsolete, or a Feasible Alternative When Radial Access is Not Possible?

The possible methods of reaching the coronary vasculature using a percutaneous technique are limitless: the radial, femoral, brachial, ulnar, subclavian and axillary arteries, and...

A 5-year Profile of Trauma Admissions to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Hospital in Singapore

Our tertiary hospital has a 9-bed Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) that caters to all surgical disciplines except Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (which has...

The Singapore National Healthcare Group Diabetes Registry – Descriptive Epidemiology of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most challenging global health problems in the 21st century. It is associated with excess mortality and significant morbidity...

Functional Outcomes of Cancer Patients in an Inpatient Rehabilitation Setting

Cancer is the leading cause of death and the second most common cause of hospitalisation in Singapore. Cancer rehabilitation aims to help the patient...

Development of Bariatric Surgery: The Effectiveness of a Multi-disciplinary Weight Management Programme in Hong Kong

Obesity is one of the most common chronic illnesses in the Western World with a frequency of 10% to 15%. It causes or exacerbates...

Clinical Outcome and Cost Comparison Between Laparoscopic and Open Appendicectomy

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common causes of acute abdominal pain requiring surgical intervention. The traditional operation of choice was the open...

Validation of the Paediatric Hearing Impairment Caregiver Experience (PHICE) Questionnaire

The stress experienced by parents of children with hearing impairment (HI) has been studied over the past 2 decades. Increased parenting stress is often...

Neonatal and Paediatric Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) in a Single Asian Tertiary Centre

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a cardiopulmonary bypass technique (CPB) introduced by Bartlett in 1972, which provides life-saving support in patients with refractory yet...

A Comparison of the Short-term Morbidity and Mortality Between Late Preterm and Term Newborns

Late preterm infants are defined as those who are born between the gestational age (GA) from 34 weeks and 0/7 days through 36 weeks...

Single Centre Experience of Transjugular Liver Biopsy in 152 Patients

The first reported case of liver biopsy was recorded in 1883 by Ehrlich. Since then, the technique of liver biopsy has been modified tremendously...

Factors reducing inappropriate attendances to emergency departments before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicentre study

Since the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in China in late December 2019, the pandemic has spread throughout the world,...

Cognitive Aspect of Diagnostic Errors

It was an unusually busy ward round. The newly promoted registrar was keen to review the patients handed over to him. But there were...

Use of the Sole Flap to Convert an Above Knee Amputation to a Below Knee Amputation in Trauma

Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) and anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF) are performed for decompression of the spine when the primary compressive...

Emergency Medicine Residency Programme in Singapore—Where Are We at Since Inception?

It has been 4.5 years since the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME-I) accredited competency-based emergency medicine residency programmes were started in July...

Risk Factors for Severe Adenovirus Infection in Children during an Outbreak in Singapore

Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are well known pathogens that cause a variety of human illnesses. They are non-enveloped, linear double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) viruses. More...

A review of child sexual abuse cases presenting to a paediatric emergency department

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a global public health issue with adverse short- and long-term repercussions. Formal definitions of CSA and the age for...

Attendance for ischaemic stroke before and during COVID-19 lockdown in Singapore

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted healthcare systems worldwide. Globally, visits to the emergency department have fallen as much as 25% during...

Health-seeking behaviour of foreign workers in Singapore: Insights from emergency department visits

Singapore employs a large foreign worker (FW) population, defined as non-Singapore citizens and non-permanent residents working locally. Holders of “work permit” (WP), the work...

Impact of dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation and myResponder mobile app on bystander resuscitation

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, with a global incidence of 62 cases per 100,000 person-years. In addition, there...

Community-level interventions for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Singapore: Yay or nay?

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of mortality and a significant public health problem globally. In Singapore, OHCA affected 11,061 adults between...

Circulatory collapse from rupture of splenic artery aneurysm: A case study

Splenic artery aneurysms (SAAs) are uncommon and often asymptomatic. However, ruptured SAAs can be rapidly fatal. We reviewed the literature on SAAs and highlighted...

Emergency airway management in a Singapore centre: A registry study

Emergency airways often present with little warning, and the need for airway management is necessary for a successful resuscitation. This is in contrast to...

Decrease in emergency department attendances during COVID-19 especially in school-going children

Health-seeking behaviour varies during a pandemic. Early reports have suggested reduced attendances at emergency departments (EDs), especially in paediatric patients and in patients with...

Virtual reality mobile application to improve videoscopic airway training: A randomised trial

Emergency airway management is a keystone of emergency medicine practice and critical skill in residency training. An accredited emergency attending is expected to handle...

Paediatric emergency department attendances during COVID-19 and SARS in Singapore

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, with over 110 million cumulative cases...

Epidemiology and risk stratification of minor head injuries in school-going children

Head injuries are common childhood injuries that present to paediatric emergency departments. Falls are the most common cause in young children, while contact sports...