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Safety and effectiveness of nitrous oxide procedural sedation in a paediatric emergency department

Dear Editor,Nitrous oxide (N2O) produces dissociative euphoria, amnesia and analgesia, and is a common sedative for procedural sedation in paediatric emergency departments (EDs) due...

A strategy to make COVID-19 vaccination more accessible to the elderly

Dear Editor,Singapore embarked on the COVID-19 National Vaccination Programme in early 2021. The main modality employed to achieve the mass vaccinations has been the...

Nutrition therapy in the older critically ill patients: A scoping review

The increasing levels of life expectancy and decreasing fertility are shifting the age structure of the world population towards older ages.1 From year 2020...

ICU nutrition: Bracing for the silver tsunami

The global population’s life expectancy is growing with a steady increase in the proportion of older patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).1...

Cost analysis of a Patient-Centred Medical Home for community-dwelling older adults with complex needs in Singapore

The Patient-Centred Medical Home (PCMH) is a model of chronic care that replaces episodic primary care, with the delivery of primary care to patients,...

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)...

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...

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,...

A Descriptive Study of the Demography, Symptomology, Management and Outcome of the First 300 Patients Admitted to an Independent Hospice in Singapore

Modern society views death as an aberration which has to be postponed and, if possible, prevented at all cost. Death is just unacceptable and...

Day Hospital Rehabilitation for the Elderly: A Retrospective Study

Alexandra Hospital is the first hospital in Singapore with a Day Hospital for the elderly. One of the main functions of the Day Hospital...

Self-Perception of Health among Elderly Community Dwellers in Singapore

The single most important determinant of the quality of an elderly person’s life is health. In the elderly, health matters affect all other areas...

Chryseobacterium meningosepticum (Flavobacterium meningosepticum)—A Report of Five Cases in a Local Hospital

Chryseobacterium meningosepticum has been known to be a causative agent of meningitis particularly in the premature and newborn infants. The first case of human...

Bilateral Caudate Infarct—A Case Report

The head of caudate nucleus forms a prominent bulge in the lateral wall of the anterior horn of the lateral ventricle. Its blood supply...

Perceived Need for Community Geriatric Services: A Survey at a Regional Hospital in Singapore in an Inpatient Setting

Singapore has one of the most rapidly ageing populations in the wor1d. The number of the very aged (>75 years old) has already increased...

Swallowing Impairment and Feeding Dependency in the Hospitalised Elderly

Loss of ability to feed independently and swallowing impairment are common problems in the elderly and will be an increasing cause of disability as...

The Reliability and Validity of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) among the Elderly Chinese in Hong Kong

The Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) is a 21-item scale designed to assess the severity of cognitive and non-cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer’s...

Screening for Hearing Impairment in Hospitalised Elderly

The prevalence of hearing impairment in the local elderly population is not known. Hearing loss prevalence estimates that 25% to 40% of individuals over...

End-of-life Issues—Preferences and Choices of a Group of Elderly Chinese Subjects Attending a Day Care Centre in Singapore

Doctors caring for elderly, dying and terminally ill patients are often faced with the dilemma of having to make difficult decisions especially regarding treatment...

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...

Delirium in patients following general anaesthesia

Delirium is a disturbance of consciousness characterised by an acute onset and fluctuating course of inattention, accompanied by either a change in cognition or...

Critical Role of Functional Decline in Delayed Discharge from an Acute Geriatric Unit

In the last decade, many countries have experienced alarming transformation in their demographic patterns, with the elderly population emerging as the fastest growing segment...

Urinary Retention in Hospitalised Older Women

Voiding dysfunction is a relatively common problem in hospitalised older patients. Up to one-third of hospitalised elderly were reported to have post-void residual urine...

Body Mass Index and Its Related Factors in the Elderly

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in developed countries, especially among the elderly. In Taiwan, cardiovascular disease is...

The Practice of Foregoing Life Support in the Critically Ill “Old Old”: A Singapore Perspective

Studies on the foregoing of life support (FLS) in North America, Europe and Australia have shown diversity in terms of the incidence, decision-making process...

The Impact of Swallowing Disorders in the Elderly

In 1898, Bastian first reported on the case of a man who had been admitted to hospital with hemiplegia and aphasia, but who had...

Early Unplanned Readmission of Elderly in Singapore: A Retrospective Study

The number of elderly people in Singapore is expected to increase over the next 2 decades. The proportion of those 60 years and above...

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...

Epidemiology of Beta-haemolytic Group G Streptococcal Bacteraemia in Singapore (1996 to 1998)

Human isolates of group G streptococci (GGS) that form large colonies are similar to group A streptococci (GAS) in terms of virulence and cause...

Correlates of Habitual Walking and Sports/Leisure-time Physical Activity in Older Persons in Singapore: Interaction Effects Between Educational Attainment and Gender

Physical inactivity has been identified as a major cause of morbidity and mortality secondary to cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. It contributes to...

Nursing Home Falls: A Local Perspective

Falls in the elderly has been a well-studied subject and now occupies an important place in geriatric medicine. While many studies have been done...

Bedside Clinical Methods Useful as Screening Test for Aspiration in Elderly Patients with Recent and Previous Strokes

Cerebrovascular disease is the fifth commonest cause of hospitalisation in Singapore, and accounts for 2.7% of all hospital discharges. Neurogenic dysphagia is a common...

End-of-life Care: Challenges and Obligations in Setting Limits to Life-sustaining Therapy

A patient with recurrent stroke disease and severe pneumonia did not respond to the previous courses of antibiotics. The medical team decided to switch...

Considerations in the Assessment and Management of Older People with Chronic Pain

Persistent pain has been estimated to occur in 50% of community dwelling older people of age 65 years and above. It has been associated...

Late-life Depression: Current Issues and New Challenges

Depression in late life (>60 years old) is one of the most common and treatable psychiatric disorders in the elderly. It not only causes...

Neurofibrillary and Ethico-legal Tangles: In Search of Surrogates for Dementia Patients Lacking Decision-making Capacity and Relatives

Dementia is an age-prevalent chronic degenerative disease that causes gradual and progressive deterioration of a patient’s cognitive abilities. With Singapore’s rapidly ageing population, the...

Assessing Decision-making Capacity in Dementia Patients: A Semi-structured Approach

Given the rapid ageing of Singapore, all practising clinicians can expect to see an exponential rise in the medical and surgical problems of the...

An Evidence-based Clinical Approach to the Diagnosis of Dementia

The prevalence of dementia or cognitive impairment in local studies has been shown to range from 2% to 13%. These differences in prevalence rates...

Urinary Incontinence in Older Persons: A Simple Approach to a Complex Problem

Urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine which is objectively demonstrable and is a social or hygienic problem. Trivial as it may sound,...

The Development of Geriatric Psychiatry Services in Singapore

The population of Singapore is ageing. In 2002, it was estimated that there were 252,700 persons aged >65 years, forming 7.5% of the population....

Aged Care Issues and Services in Australia

In Australia, the number of elderly people is increasing rapidly. In 2001, the population of Australia was approximately 19 million people and about 12.6%...

Aged Care Services in Singapore – An Overview

The last century has witnessed the establishment of geriatric medicine as a well-recognised medical specialty supported by a respectable body of evidence, which shows...

Challenges in Geriatric Medicine: Geriatric Services and Education

Ignatz Nascher first proposed disease and medical care of the aged as a separate specialty and invented the term “geriatrics” in 1909. However, the...

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...

Thyroid Dysfunction in Elderly Patients

Symptoms and signs of thyroid dysfunction in the elderly tend to be atypical and may be mistakenly attributed to the ageing process. Currently, thyroid...

Improving the Diagnosis Related Grouping Model’s Ability to Explain Length of Stay of Elderly Medical Inpatients by Incorporating Function-linked Variables

Casemix refers to the numbers and types of patients within a healthcare setting and Diagnosis Related Groupings (DRGs) represent one mode of classifying casemix....

Impact of a Pharmacist Consult Clinic on a Hospital-based Geriatric Outpatient Clinic in Singapore

A general philosophy in the care of elderly patients is to use the least drugs possible to achieve the desired clinical outcome. In the...

Polypharmacy and Inappropriate Medication Use in Singapore Nursing Homes

The elderly usually have multiple medical problems, requiring prescription drugs to treat diseases and to prevent complications arising from them. Currently, in the United...

Evaluation of Dementia: The Case for Neuroimaging All Mild to Moderate Cases

Dementia has been reported to affect 4% to 13% of individuals above the age of 65, with the difference in prevalence rates being dependent...

Are Sensory and Cognitive Declines Associated in Older Persons Seeking Aged Care Services? Findings From a Pilot Study

Many cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have reported an association between sensory and cognitive functions in the normal ageing population. Few studies have assessed the...

Factors Causing Delay in Discharge of Elderly Patients in an Acute Care Hospital

With the introduction of block budget for acute care hospitals, cost containment is an important issue for all secondary and tertiary hospitals. Though health...

Factors Associated With Functional Decline of Hospitalised Older Persons Following Discharge From an Acute Geriatric Unit

Hospitalisation is a stressful event for the older person. The physiological changes associated with ageing, such as decreased muscle strength and aerobic activity, reduced...

When the Stork Arrives Unannounced – Seven Years of Emergency Deliveries in a Non-obstetric General Hospital

Emergency department (ED) deliveries are uncommon in the Singapore setting, as patients presenting with labour to the ED are sent to the obstetric suites...

Attitudes of First-year Medical Students in Singapore Towards Older People and Willingness to Consider a Career in Geriatric Medicine

With the exponential increase in the elderly population in Singapore, the training of young physicians of tomorrow in the care of elderly patients will...

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...

Alzheimer’s Disease – Towards More Patient-centred and Meaningful Clinical Outcomes

More than 100 years ago Alois Alzheimer first presented the clinical and pathological features of an unusual brain disease at his seminal lecture in...

Hip Fractures in the Elderly: The Impact of Comorbid Illnesses on Hospitalisation Costs

Management of hip fractures is costly and continues to generate significant costs throughout the one-year period after discharge.1 They demand considerable resources from a...

A Review of Geriatric Education in Singapore

The United Nations International Plan of Action on Ageing (IPA), formulated during the First World Assembly on Ageing in Vienna in 1982, listed gerontological...

Resource Consumption in Hospitalised, Frail Older Patients

The number of older adults in Singapore has been steadily increasing over the years and will continue to do so. In 2007, older adults...

Validity and Reliability of the Zarit Burden Interview in Assessing Caregiving Burden

Dementia is a growing public health issue in the Asia-Pacific region. The number of people with dementia in the Asia-Pacific region will increase from...

Profiling Acute Presenting Symptoms of Geriatric Patients Attending an Urban Hospital Emergency Department

Singapore’s population is ageing rapidly. Today 1 out of every 12 Singaporeans is aged 65 or above. In 2030, it is expected to be...

Predicting Positive Blood Cultures in Patients presenting with Pneumonia at an Emergency Department in Singapore

Pneumonia is the fourth leading cause for hospitalisation, and the third leading cause of death in Singapore.1 Overall, it is consistently one of the...

Validity and Reliability of the Expectations Regarding Aging (ERA-12) Instrument among Middle-Aged Singaporeans

With increasing life expectancy and low fertility rates, the proportion of the elderly is rapidly increasing in developed nations, Singapore being no exception. The...

Factors Affecting the B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Levels in Stroke Patients

The term “stroke” comprises all diseases in which a region of the brain is transiently or continuously affected by ischaemia or haemorrhage, and/or in...

Herpes Zoster as a Useful Clinical Marker of Underlying Cell-mediated Immune Disorders

Herpes zoster (HZ) occurs when latent virus in the dorsal-root ganglia becomes reactivated and causes a vesicular and often painful rash with a dermatomal...

Junior Doctors’ Attitudes Towards Older Adults and its Correlates in a Tertiary-care Public Hospital

Singapore is a rapidly ageing society. The proportion of older persons above the age of 65 was 6.8% of the population in 1995 and...

An Observational, Prospective Study to Determine the Ease of Vascular Access in Adults Using a Novel Intraosseous Access Device

Intravascular access is a vital component of emergency care and resuscitation. There is nothing more frustrating for the emergency physician than the inability to...

Clinical Outcome Following Treatment of Stable and Unstable Intertrochanteric Fractures with Dynamic Hip Screw

Intertrochanteric (IT) fracture is among the most common orthopedic injuries in the elderly population, and is associated with osteoporosis. It usually occurs as a...

Older Age at Initial Presentation to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Care and Treatment at the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) in Singapore, 2006 to 2011

Since the first case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Singapore was identified in 1985, the incidence of HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has steadily...

Can Preoperative Scoring Systems be Applied to Asian Hip Fracture Populations? Validation of the Nottingham Hip Fracture Score (NHFS) and Identification of Preoperative Risk Factors in Hip Fractures

Osteoporotic hip fractures are common and have significant consequences on mortality and functional capability which indirectly has familial, social and economic repercussions. The inpatient...

Anticoagulation Needs in Asians with Atrial Fibrillation: A Mythbuster

Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of stroke 5-fold in Caucasians. While the relative risk for stroke is somewhat lower in Asia, estimated at...

External Validation of the Cham Score for Ordering of Blood Cultures in Emergency Department Patients with Non-Hospital Acquired Pneumonia

Some guidelines currently promote the taking of blood cultures in patients admitted to hospital with non-hospital acquired pneumonia in order to identify pathogens and...

Successful Ageing in Singapore—A Viable Goal?

Ageing is a complex process. Achieving it successfully has implications and significance not only for individuals on a personal level but for society at...

Changing Landscape of Nursing Homes in Singapore: Challenges in the 21st Century

Nursing homes trace their evolution to American alms-houses in the 1930s where retired nurses welcomed the elderly and ill into their homes. In Singapore,...

Determinants of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Community Dwelling Elderly

Singapore is experiencing an unprecedented age shift as the post-war baby boomers turn 65 years in 2012. Currently there are 378,700 people aged 65...

Unipolar versus Bipolar Hemiarthroplasty for Displaced Femoral Neck Fractures in the Elderly: Is There a Difference?

Hip hemiarthoplasties are commonly performed for displaced femoral neck fractures. The advantages of hemiarthroplasty over internal fixation include earlier mobility, less reoperations and better...

Diagnosing Bacteraemia Early in Older Adults

Sepsis is a prevalent and important cause of morbidity and mortality in the general population. Approximately 750,000 patients in the United States alone develop...

Anti-BP180 NC16A IgG Titres as an Indicator of Disease Activity and Outcome in Asian Patients with Bullous Pemphigoid

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is a subepidermal blistering dermatosis characterised by circulating autoantibodies targeting BP180 and BP230 hemidesmosomal proteins. Anti-BP180 NC16A IgG antibodies have been...

A Decade of Progress in the Understanding, Prevention and Treatment of Age-related Macular Degeneration in Singapore

The year 2014 had marked the 10th anniversary of the nationwide Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Awareness Week in Singapore.1 This public health campaign, organised...

Evidence-balanced Medicine: “Real” Evidence-based Medicine in the Elderly

Case 1: An 85-year-old male with past history of hypertension is otherwise healthy and enjoys his daily walks and good food. During a health...

Prehabilitation and Its Role in Geriatric Surgery

The population in Singapore is ageing rapidly. According to statistics, by 2030, 1 in 2 adults in Singapore will be >65 years old. As...

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...

Congenital adhesion band causing recurrent subacute intestinal obstruction in a virgin abdomen

Intestinal obstruction (IO) caused by malignancy and adhesion bands from previous surgery is common among adults. However, IO caused by congenital adhesion bands (CAB)...

Tackling osteoporosis and fragility fractures in Singapore

A shift in worldwide population ageing demographics has occurred in the 21st century. The longevity miracle is most keenly felt in Singapore, a young...

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...