The objective of a cervical screening programme is to prevent invasive cancer of the cervix by detecting and treating pre-invasive disease of the cervix....

Schizophrenia is the most severe of all mental disorders and affects about 1% of the population. The main disturbances of schizophrenia comprise positive symptoms,...

Ingested foreign bodies are a common condition in the practice of Otolaryngology. In particular, there is no doubt a greater tendency in the local...

Osteoporosis is becoming an increasing public health problem in most countries. Osteoporosis literally means “porous bones” and involves skeletal fragility leading to an increased...

Gout occurs in 3 overlapping phases: a long phase of asymptomatic hyperuricaemia, a period of recurrent acute gouty attacks separated by asymptomatic intervals (interval...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or lupus (“wolf” in Latin) in short, is an autoimmune disorder of unknown aetiology(ies) and characterised by diverse clinical manifestations...

Gout is a common metabolic disease that causes arthritis which is often painful and sometimes disabling. It results from the deposition of monosodium urate...

Apart from the nasal bone, the mandible is the most commonly fractured bone in the face. It is also the 10th most often broken...

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

Pathologic skin picking may be defined as the habitual picking of skin lesions, which when chronic and extensive, can lead to significant distress, dysfunction...

Trichotillomania (TTM) is a chronic psychiatric condition characterised by uncontrollable, self-inflicted, hair pulling, resulting in noticeable hair loss. First described by Hallopeau a century...

Twenty years ago, the therapy of glomerulonephritis (GN) was relatively simple as it was believed that treatment with prednisolone should be confined to patients...

There have been many reports on the use of conventional doses of cyclosporine A (CsA) in inducing remission among adults with minimal change nephrotic...

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...

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

There is a trend in Asia towards a greater application of psychotherapeutic approaches in multidisciplinary settings to emotional and behavioural disturbances. The inaugural issue...

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death and a leading cause of morbidity in Singapore. The number of hospital admissions for cerebrovascular disorders...

Fractures, the most serious complication of osteoporosis, are increasing and constitute an evolving public health problem in terms of disability, mortality and cost. A...

Osteoporosis is regarded as an important public health problem in many Caucasian populations. Much of the research on epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, genetic and molecular...

Fibroids are the most common, solid benign pelvic tumours occurring in about 30% of women beyond the age of 30. They are asymptomatic in...

Colorectal carcinoma is the second commonest cancer in both males and females in Singapore, accounting for about 15% of all cancer cases. The liver...

Hypercalcaemia is a relatively common clinical problem with the widespread use of routine biochemical screening. Population studies have suggested a prevalence of 3% in...

From September 1998 to June 1999, there was an outbreak of viral encephalitis in several pig farming villages in Malaysia. The outbreak, which started...

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of acquired clonal haemopoietic stem cell disorders characterised by ineffective haematopoiesis and peripheral cytopenia. The natural history...

Patients who talk after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and then subsequently deteriorate into a coma are defined as those with an initial Glasgow Coma...

Patients with chest pain often pose a diagnostic conundrum to the attending physician especially when symptoms are not typical of angina and the electrocardiogram...

Worldwide, asthma is estimated to affect between 5% and 10% of the population and, among adults, 4% to 9% of these cases have been...

Bile duct perforation (BDP) and biliary ascites in children is a rare clinical entity. The aetiopathogenesis is still elusive. This article is available only as...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recently defined illness caused by a novel coronavirus. The outbreak in Singapore originated from Hong Kong via...

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

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Status epilepticus (SE) describes a clinical condition characterised by an epileptic seizure or a series of seizures that lasts for at least 30 minutes...

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

Children with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) may present with nocturnal and/or diurnal symptoms. The history is best obtained from parents, or siblings who share...

Carcinoma of the oesophagus is a relatively uncommon malignancy in Singapore and incidence rates have been declining since 1968. A total of 506 cases...

The management of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease is deceptively simple. Current practice, which consists of replacing dopamine on a twice or thrice daily regime may...

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...

Slipped capital femoral epiphysis is the commonest hip problem in the adolescent age group. The goals of treatment are aimed at avoiding the complications...

Since its advent in 1982, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an important component in the evaluation of multiple sclerosis (MS). MRI is a...

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

Schwannomas, also known as neurilemmomas, neuromas, or neurinomas, are uncommon nerve sheath neoplasms that may originate from any peripheral, cranial or autonomic nerve of...

Spinal cord injury (SCI), whether of traumatic or non-traumatic aetiology, often results in significant and catastrophic dysfunction and disability. It physically and psychologically affects...

Strokes in childhood are generally considered to be rare with an incidence of about 2.7 per 100 000 children per year.1 The aetiologies of...

The prognosis of patients with stage IV melanoma or recurrent melanoma is poor with an estimated median survival period of 6 months. The recent...

In recent decades, medical advances and economic pressures have shifted medical student training from hospital inpatient to ambulatory settings such as hospital outpatient and...

Decisions regarding potential surgery for metastatic disease are influenced by estimates of patient survival. For example, patients with long life expectancy may be appropriately...

Gambling has been defined as a wager of any type of item or possession of value upon a game or event of uncertain outcome...

Although colorectal cancer is common in Western countries, in the past, it has been uncommon in Asian countries. However, its prevalence has gradually been...

Singapore is a country of high income with a low level human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, the yearly incidence of disease currently standing at...

Mammogram has been the gold standard for breast cancer screening and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been advocated for screening of high- risk individuals....

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, with a worldwide incidence of approximately 900,000 in 2008. Internationally, there is...

The Internet has in recent years become ubiquitous in the lives of young persons and children due to rapid information technology (IT) development, high...

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) constitutes nearly 4% of all children diagnosed with cancer in the ethnically diverse small island city of Singapore. It is the most...

Cirrhosis is the common end result of chronic damage to liver parenchyma caused by a variety of liver diseases. It results in replacement of...

Overweight and obesity continue to be one of the most critical public health issues worldwide. Body mass index (BMI) derived from height and weight...

Carbamazepine (CBZ) has been used in Singapore since 19881 as an effective drug for the treatment of conditions such as epilepsy, neuropathy, neuralgia and...

In the past 2 decades, the management of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) has been revolutionised by the introduction of minimally invasive endovenous techniques, which...

EQ-5D is a tool to measure and value health status. It is a standardised questionnaire that comprises 2 components: a Descriptive System (DS) on...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing global pandemic infection by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is established that increasing...

Asia faces an epidemic of diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes in Asia is projected to grow from 114 million in 2007 to 180 million...