This prospective survey attempt to study the incidence of post-operative back pain after lumbar epidural anesthesia for non-obstetric patterns and the correlation of this symptom with various contributing factors. One hundred and five patients who were given lumbar epidural anaesthesia as the sole anaesthesia for non-obstetric surgery were studied. The choice of equipment, number of attempts at giving the injection, duration of surgery and position of patient during surgery were documented. One week post-operatively, the patients were asked whether they recalled any back pain. The nature, duration and severity of the back pain was documented. Statistical analysis was achieved by using Chi-squared test. Twenty-eight patients recalled "injection site tenderness" post-operatively. The pain was mild to moderate in severity and lasted up to 4 days. None of the studied patients had post-operative "backache". The pain showed no significant correlation with needle size, technique of injection, use of epidural catheter, patient's position during surgery, duration and number of attempts made during epidural injection.
Percentile head circumference charts, from six to eleven years of age, for boys and girls are presented. These can be used to monitor the head circumference of Malaysian children.
Percentile growth charts of weight, length and head circumference, from birth to six years of age, for boys and girls, are presented. These can be used to monitor the growth of Malaysian children.
Two hundred Malaysian patients representing 227 ears with previously untreated cholesteatoma disease were analysed retrospectively in terms of i) type of disease, i.e. primary acquired attic defect or posterior superior retraction pocket and secondary acquired type cholesteatoma; ii) positive history of previous middle ear effusion, atelectasis or grommet insertion; and iii) likelihood of complications as initial presenting feature. The high 47.1% incidence of secondary acquired cholesteatoma disease in our patients contrasts with the predominance of primary acquired cholesteatoma in the Caucasian patient. Correlation of these two disease types with a positive history showed a significant positive association between the primary acquired group and a positive history; and conversely a significant negative association for the secondary acquired type. This supports a role for the retraction theory in primary acquired cholesteatoma but negates this theory in secondary acquired cholesteatoma. Secondary acquired cholesteatoma had a significantly higher (35.5%) complication rate against 15.8% in the primary acquired type (p = 0.001). This fact together with a 47.1% incidence of secondary acquired disease, low otolaryngologist population ratio and patient attitudes to disease account for the high total complication rate of 27.3%.
The infant immunization coverage for triple antigen (DPT) from 1968 and trivalent oral polio vaccine (TOPV) from 1972 to 1985 for Peninsular Malaysia are presented. It shows that immunization coverage improved when the recommended age for first dose of DPT was changed from the fourth to the second month of life in 1972 and declined when the recommended age for the first dose of DPT and TOPV was revised again from the second to the third month of life in 1980. The advantages of immunizing children early in life are discussed.
126 Malay children from higher income families were followed-up regularly from birth to six years of age in the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. Their developmental performance was compared to that of Denver children. Generally, Malaysian and Denver children appear to be similar in their development during the first six years of life except for some minor differences in the personal-social, language and gross motor sectors. Malaysians appear to be slower in self-care but more advanced in "helping around the house", "playing interactive games" and in "separating from mother". They were slightly slower in gross motor function during the first year of life but more advanced during the second year of life. However, they were slightly more advanced in language development. The differences in development between the two groups of children are discussed and it is concluded that the differences can partly be explained by differences in socio-economic or cultural differences between the two groups of children. However, the influence of genetic factors cannot be dismissed.
126 Malaysian children, 65 boys and 61 girls from higher income families were followed-up regularly from birth to six years of age in the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. Their physical growth, development, dietary and illness patterns were measured at each visit. The study confirms the observations of previous studies that boys are, on the average, heavier and taller than girls and that Asians are smaller in size with relatively shorter legs compared with children of European ancestry. These racial differences are due to a combination of genetic and environmental differences. Since there are genetic differences in the size and shape of children, standards applicable to the specific population should be used to obtain the best results when assessing the health of an individual child. The growth charts presented in this paper can be used as standards to monitor the growth of Asian infants and pre-school children.
Over the past hundred years in industrialised countries and recently in some developing countries, children have been getting larger and growing to maturity more rapidly. This paper compares the growth of Malaysian children with similar socioeconomic backgrounds but born about twelve years apart. Data were obtained from records of 227 children born between 1968 and 1973 and 238 children born between 1980 and 1985. The children were followed-up regularly at the University Hospital Child Health Clinic in Kuala Lumpur for a variable period from birth to five years of age. Measurements for their weight, length and head circumference were taken at each visit. There is a directional indication that boys and girls of the 1980-1985 cohort are taller, heavier and have bigger head circumferences from birth to five years of age and the difference widens as the child grows older. This study clearly shows that a positive secular trend has taken place in the last decade, reflecting an improvement of living conditions with time. The factors involved in the positive secular trend are manifold and the most important is probably nutrition.
126 Malaysian children, 65 boys and 61 girls from higher income families were followed-up regularly from birth to six years of age in the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. The study shows that for boys and girls, there is a progressive increase in the left mid-upper arm circumference from birth to six years of age. However the rate of growth is not even, being most rapid during the first four month of infancy, then rapidly decreases during the middle third of infancy and thereafter it decreases slowly and by the second year of life, there is hardly any increase in the arm circumference. The left triceps skinfold thickness curves for boys and girls rise rapidly after birth to reach a peak at about three to five months before commencing to decline and then flatten off from the second year of life. The study also shows that on the whole, boys have slightly bigger arm circumference than girls during the first two years of life. From two years of age, girls on the average have more fat than boys. However this difference is statistically not significant at the ages tested. This paper also presents the left mid-upper arm circumference and left triceps skinfold percentile charts of Malaysian boys and girls from birth to six years of age.
126 Malaysian children, 65 boys and 61 girls from higher income families were followed-up regularly from birth to six years of age in the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. The study confirms the observations of previous studies that growth velocity of head circumference is most rapid during the first few months of infancy and then decreases so that by the fifth year of life the increment is minimal. It also confirms the fact that boys have bigger head circumferences than girls. The paper also presents the head circumference distance and velocity percentile charts which can be used to monitor the head circumference of Malaysian children.