This study is a review of the Acute Pain Service in Hospital Kuala Lumpur for the years 1998 to 2001. 5042 records from post-operative patients were analysed. The majority of patients (81.8%) had satisfactory pain control. Eighty-two percent of patients experienced only mild pain at rest on the first post-operative day. The highest pain score occurred on the first day in 68.3% of patients. Nausea or vomiting occurred in 23.2% of the patients. Eight patients had respiratory depression. The low pain scores recorded by most patients and the low incidence of side effects reflect the efficiency of the service provided.
The incidence of candidaemia among immunocompromised patients in Malaysia is increasing at an alarming rate. Isolation of clinical strains that are resistant to fluconazole has also risen markedly. We report here the repeated isolation of Candida tropicalis from the blood of a neonatal patient with Hirschsprung's disease. In vitro fluconazole susceptibility tests of the eight isolates obtained at different time points showed that seven of the isolates were resistant and one isolate was scored as susceptible dose-dependent. Random amplification of polymorphic DNA fingerprinting of the isolates using three primers and subsequent phylogenetic analysis revealed that these isolates were highly similar strains having minor genetic divergence, with a mean pairwise similarity coefficient of 0.893+/-0.041. The source of the infectious agent was thought to be the central venous catheter, as culture of its tip produced fluconazole-resistant C. tropicalis. This study demonstrates the utility of applying molecular epidemiology techniques to complement traditional mycological culture and drug susceptibility tests for accurate and appropriate management of recurrent candidaemia and highlights the need for newer antifungals that can combat the emergence of fluconazole-resistant C. tropicalis strains.