grand rounds on south african shores.

it's not just the soccer world cup that is on south african shores but the great grand rounds, something that some would say is far more important than the world cup (ok only one guy would actually say that and he is in a psychiatric institution in outer mongolia) is also presently hosted in south africa!!! proudly south african!!!

but time to see what the bloggers have dished up for us this week.



here is an interesting article sent by preeti kaur which is relevant in the context of the world cup. i must say i think that fifa should stick to soccer and plundering african countries and keep out of healthcare but i may be wrong.


greenpoint stadium

amy tendrich reflects on the lessons learned by the ada.

another blogger making her voice heard in the diabetic community is kerri sparling.


a kuduzela, an variation of the vuvuzela










philip hickey, a psychologists questions the tendency of modern medicine to add a diagnosis to pretty much anything, in this case sexual disorders.



in a somewhat related post james baker wonders if some things that modern medicine has labelled a disease may only be problems of living this thing we call life.


jo'burg stadium










a south african reflects on lessons learned from soccer. fifa, with their autocratic laws imposed on previously free south africans may demand royalties, but then again she has moved to far away shores, so i think she might be safe


the great doctor anonymous touches on an issue that i often think about, the end of a blog. this one touches a nerve with me because i also sometimes consider how long my own blog will live.

a sotho blowing a kuduzela

how to cope with chronic pain has a nice piece on professional sports stars and pain they feel. he concentrates on retired nfl players. if he were to look at soccer players i'm sure he would find the active players cry all the time, especially when the ref is looking.


polokwane stadium

bob vineyard of insureblog shines a light on an aspect of medical insurance that ultimately played a part in the demise of a cancer patient.




south african supporters armed with vuvuzelas, makarapas and glasses (to see better of course)

andrew holtz of mditv tells us that watching soccer may even be more dangerous than playing it, despite the expressions of pain and agony on the faces of the numerous world cup players forever diving.

a man i consider a great blog academic, doctor rich wonders about the motives of people trashing the jupiter trial in an otherwise respected journal.




an old style makarapa with matching spectacles. we can make a spectacle of ourselves if we want to













robin mockenhaupt looks at some financial aspects of prevention of disease in the elderly.


true style south african supporter

louise discusses how some clinics will get hit hard by delays in payments by medicaid.



the goal that wasn't. well done fifa!

walter jessen tells us about a certificate that has recently been launched by the health on the internet foundation. this will hopefully help advice seekers to be a bit more critical about the things they read online.




david harlow looks at health information from a slightly different angle.
good old south african soccer glasses












dr deb gives us advice in the form of tips for mental fitness. have a look how many you do.




the now famous soccer city in soweto

the happy hospitalist has stumbled on a much cheaper alternative to using a translator when you and your patient don't share a communal language. happy, i too have seen this technique used in south africa with similar results.


a band maybe? they at least all play the same note.

jill of all trades talks about something that has always been close to my heart, the training of the future doctors of the world. some day i hope to once again become involved.





the cheating devious uruguay understanding of foot in the word football.

the legendary blogger, dr charles takes a look at an isolation experiment that is supposed to mimic a trip to mars. in the end maby it only mimics isolation. besides, what's a surgeon doing in such an experiment? do they want them to fight?

makes me proud.

doctor bates relays a short humorous story.




my team, although they went out early (and after all it's not rugby)

alan dappen writing for get better health discusses a pleasant encounter with a patient, even though money issues were discussed.

maradona was often more entertaining to watch than the soccer.

and that's it for this week's edition. i hope it supplied a nice few posts for your enjoyment. please feel free to link here.

next week's grand rounds will be held over at captain atopic's place.

grand rounds

i have been bestowed the great and grand honour of hosting grand rounds this coming tuesday. i thought that a general soccer world cup theme may be in order seeing that my country is presently the host of the tournament, so fire up your vuvuzelas and get writing.

all medical or medically related posts will be welcome. of course, with me being african, any submissions from uruguay will not be considered. posts from fifa will also be rejected.

please send all submissions to bongi (that's me) at amanzi dot com not later than sunday 11 july at midnight south african time (i don't know what time that is wherever you are). please put grand rounds in the subject line.

the leroy-burnell syndrome

when we were in medical school as with all medical students we were bombarded with many new words. not the least of these were the myriad of syndromes. and each syndrome had symptoms that overlapped with pretty much every other syndrome. it was one large conglomeration of new words all mixed together.

but there were a few other things we noticed. firstly every syndrome worth its salt had a double barrelled name with a hyphen in between. exotic sounding names worked better than simple names like mark or john. also the more symptoms associated with a syndrome the better the syndrome was.

and thus we invented the leroy-burnell syndrome. the name was perfect. and seeing that we used it to explain any conglomeration of symptoms that we could not otherwise bring to a diagnosis, any symptom known to man could be attributed to our neologistic syndrome. (if only house md had known about this syndrome the episodes would all be half the length.) if we had no idea about a patient, my clinical partner would lean across and say,
"this is a classical case of leroy-burnell syndrome." and doff his head intellectually. if the prof was not looking we would laugh.

then one day we were doing our usual ward chores in internal medicine. a group of fourth years came in with a rotating consultant. the consultant lead them to a patient. he told them to examine the patient and make a diagnosis. he would be back in 30min to discuss the case with them.
as fourth years generally were they seemed a bit nervous about direct patient contact. finally they drew the curtain and one approached the patient.

it was about then that my clinical partner decided to 'help'. he stuck his head through the curtain and said.
"you guys, this patient has the leroy-burnell syndrome so make sure you don't miss that. but don't worry, the clinical signs are easy to pick up. good luck!"

the gratitude on the nervous face of the fourth years was clear as they simultaneously thanked my friend for his kind gesture and reached for their pocket references to look up the leroy-burnell syndrome. it seems they hadn't come across it in their studies yet.
i turned away to hide my laugh. i was imagining the pride on the unsuspecting face of the fourth year when he announces to the consultant that this was a classic case of leroy-burnell syndrome.

grand rounds

grand rounds vol 4 number 15, welcome to south africa. and a happy new year to all!!




rlbates is suturing for a living. she gives an informative overview on post hematoma in plastic surgery. how to decrease the chances.













jolie bookspan challenges us to extend the spirit of christmas in more than one way.








rita schwab talks about her experience starting up a new business involved in tracking and responding to patient comments, complaints and grievances in the healthcare setting. sounds like a worthwhile endeavour. "this is great, rita, but what about...?"










henry stern tackles a tough issue. it puts focus on the cost involved in healthcare and who should pay when the procedure may not make a difference to the prognosis. it reminded me that bad things happen to good people and sometimes it is no one's fault.










one of my favourite bloggers (and 'radio' hosts), doctor anonymous, discusses medical myths even doctors believe. but is it doctors that say they believe these myths or is it a myth that doctors believe them? take a look.















coming from a country as i do where the rate of intervention in childbirth is, in my opinion, ridiculously high, i really enjoyed myra's post about home birth. it is good to be reminded that pregnancy and childbirth are not illnesses. keep it up, myra.




















shauna puts a personal face on the effects of ms. this is a very brave blog and definitely worth a look.
















ernursey has a great post about a patient that gave the er staff their daily dose of adrenaline. i love these personal accounts. i must admit, it reminded me how little i enjoyed cardiac patients. each to his own, though. well done.












paul auerbach has an interesting post about wearing a helmet while skiing. i know i'm probably the last one to give an opinion about skiing, but wearing a helmet does strike me as a good idea. take a look what he says.














barbara kivowitz questions how equal we are in health care. or are some truly more equal than others?


















dr emer gives some good suggestions for new year's resolutions. will we be able to pull it off this year?
















a psychiatrist discusses an itch and how to scratch it. who would have thunk there is so much more than just getting that special person to scratch it.














eric turkewitz brings the legal perspective to the fore. it's good to know politicians mess things up everywhere and not just in africa. i'm also glad that medical litigation is not as prevalent where i come from.













gerald pugliese and doctor fuhrman discuss whether cooking vegetables really makes such a difference. being very allergic, as i am, to the multitude of dogmatic fads that intermittently turn up, i really enjoyed a scientific look at this.











david e williams has a somewhat scary look at the chance that google can diagnose you of some illness before your doctor. maybe big brother is really watching us???















alvaro discusses how we got expensive brains and what it means today. very interesting stuff.
















vitum medicinus writes a post reminding himself what an honour he has to be in the profession he is in. i'm glad to see that his emphasis is in the right place.














terry talks about epidurals in labour. it seems that you need to get them in to transform the patient into a relaxed, cooperative being before another transformation takes place. imagine if dr jeckyl had known this stuff.














jenni prokopy takes us through a post dealing with the social aspects of living with a chronic condition. i liked this article because it reminded me that the task of going about our business of being human is actually what it is all about. us medical types sometimes forget this.













clinical cases shows us that av blocks can be cool. well if not cool, then at least funny. take a look and a laugh.






















in allergy notes we learn that carbon dioxide can help with allergic rhinitis. i can't help wondering what al gore would say about that.
















susan palwick takes us through a night of trauma and its effects on the family and the chaplain.
i love these personal blogs. i often get asked how i do what i do, but i really wonder how susan does what she does. not for me thank you.














kenneth f. trofatter takes a look at low hormone levels in early pregnancy. very informative without losing the human touch. well done.














toni brayer has a wonderful post about resolutions for patients and doctors. good luck with that.














dr val helps us understand the jumble of conflicting studies, or more specifically why there are conflicting studies in the first place.













finally, i thought it was tough in south african hospitals and i'm sure many bloggers feel that they have it quite hard in their american hospitals. but we can all be glad we are not down under! all i can say is that it is obviously universal...white men can't dance.









and that's it from africa. please feel free to drop by here any time for surgical and uniquely south african stories.












next week's grand rounds will be hosted at pathtalk.