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Showing posts from September, 2015

Alcoholic liver disease

 INTRODUCTION  Chronic and excessive use of alcohol is one of the major causes of liver disease. 90% of daily heavy drinkers (>60 g alcohol/day) as well as binge drinkers have fatty liver but a smaller percentage (10-35%) of drinkers progress to alcoholic hepatitis which is a precursor for cirrhosis. The long-term risk is 9 times higher in patients with alcoholic hepatitis compared to those with fatty liver alone. Some population-based surveys have documented that men must drink 40 to 80 g of alcohol daily and women must drink 20 to 40 g daily for 10 to 12 years to achieve a significant risk of liver disease. Liver pathology consists of  3 major lesions  that are progressive and rarely exist in a pure form: 1) fatty liver (usually reverses quickly with abstinence), 2) alcoholic hepatitis and 3) cirrhosis. Prognosis of severe alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is bad. Mortality of patients with alcoholic hepatitis concurrent with cirrhosis id nearly 60% at 4 years. Alt

Voltaire - Medical quote no longer valid

Times have changed Monsieur Voltaire. Your quote is no longer valid in our "Evidence Based Medicine" world. The quote's accuracy is stunning though if applied to quacks. Our advice to young practitioners : DO NOT BLINDLY FOLLOW WHAT A SENIOR DOCTOR IS DOING. Try to  understand why he did something for that specific problem. Always ask if you do not understand. Article resources: 1)  "Voltaire lisant L’année littéraire de Fréron", huile sur toile de Jacques Augustin Catherine Pajou, 1811 Last reviewed on: 2 September 2015