November 15, 1998

Although most cases of pediatric gastroenteritis in the United States are self-limited, severe gastroenteritis requires aggressive therapeutic intervention.

Cardiac rehabilitation that includes high-intensity exercise and a fat-controlled diet benefits patients with coronary artery disease.

Epidural analgesia remains the most effective and flexible technique for providing pain relief during labor and delivery. Some controversy remains regarding the propensity of epidural analgesia to interfere with the progress of labor.

Acute bacterial sinusitis, which is diagnosed by assessing the patient's history, often will respond to shorter courses of first-line antibiotics than have been traditionally prescribed. Little evidence supports the use of ancillary treatments such as nasal corticosteroids and…

Aminoglycosides are potent bactericidal antibiotics that are used for antimicrobial prophylaxis and for the treatment of bacteremia, endocarditis and severe infections of the abdomen and urinary tract. Resistance to these antibiotics is rare but increasing in frequency.

An 18-year-old man with a remote history of asthma presented to our office with the acute onset of dyspnea and retrosternal chest pain. The patient had been evaluated previously by another physician and treated with nebulized albuterol for a presumed asthma exacerbation. Later…

(Great Britain—The Practitioner, June 1998, p. 434.) The most common causes of sensory neuroepithelium loss in the cochlea are congenital ear defects and meningitis. Cochlear implants were developed to overcome the profound deafness resulting from interruption of input to the…

Perhaps you have noticed the following logo that has been appearing on selected articles in AFP: This logo marks articles in the subject area of the AAFP's Annual Clinical Focus (ACF), a program designed to provide family physicians with state-of-the-art information on a…

Selected policy and health issues news briefs from AAFP News Now.

U.S. tuberculosis rates continue to fall. In 1997, 19,855 cases of tuberculosis were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; this represents a decline of 7 percent from 1996 and 26 percent from 1992. According to statistics published in Morbidity and…

In this issue of American Family Physician, Vincent and Chestnut1 provide an excellent review of epidural analgesia for labor from the anesthesia perspective. Epidural analgesia is the most effective method for pain relief during labor, and it is relatively safe. As with all…

In this issue of American Family Physician, Gonzalez and Spencer1 update us on the current status of aminoglycosides, presenting new insight into their mechanism of action, and revisiting their clinical roles and the pharmacologic and therapeutic basis for single daily dosing…

While doing research for a presentation on removing foreign bodies from the ear and nose in children, WLL came across an old article in the May/June 1977 issue of the Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology (p.369) that described a “new” technique, using dental impression…

(31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research) Results of a study of 24,470 men who answered questions about smoking habits at multiphasic checkups from 1964 to 1973 indicate that men who smoke cigars have a twofold increase in cancers of the lung and of the…

The American Heart Association (AHA) has updated guidelines for carotid endarterectomy in patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid stenosis. Developed by the 16-member Special Writing Group of the Stroke Council, the guidelines cover the following topics: management…

Each year, more than 1 million persons under 20 years of age become pregnant, according to a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) concerning counseling the adolescent about pregnancy options. The statement, published in the May 1998 issue of Pediatrics…

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Sinuses are air spaces in the bones around your nose and eyes. The sinuses make your skull weigh less and improve the sound of your voice. They also make mucus, a fluid that helps warm the air you breathe and add moisture to it. Hair cells that are called cilia (sill-ee-ah…