Acute compartment syndrome has a multitude of aetiologies. Unfortunately, the diagnosis is often delayed, resulting in permanent functional loss. Although spontaneous muscle infarction is an uncommon, yet well-recognized complication of diabetes mellitus, subsequent development of compartment syndrome appears to be rare, with only five case reports identified in the literature. This condition has not been reported in the emergency medicine literature. We report a case of a diabetic gentleman who presented with lower limb pain significantly out of proportion to any obvious injury and had a subsequent diagnosis of acute compartment syndrome. Despite fasciotomies, he had a persistent foot drop. Nontraumatic acute compartment syndrome secondary to diabetic muscle infarction should be considered in any diabetic patient presenting with pain out of proportion to sustained injury.

We argue that there is a well-intentioned—yet mistaken—definitional turn within contemporary cultural discourse in which ‘true’ religion, being essentially loving and peaceful, is distinguished from ‘false’ religion. Concerned with the possibility that this discourse might be prevalent in school Religious Education (RE), we surveyed practicing RE teachers within the United Kingdom (UK) on their beliefs about religion. We wanted to see how far the surveyed teachers evidenced a strand of contemporary cultural discourse which, we argue, conceptualizes bad religion as false religion. Responses from 465 teachers to our online survey indicate that many RE teachers understand religion(s) as essentially benign or pro-social—and present it/them as such in the classroom. We argue that RE can only foster religious literacy if religions are presented as multifarious, complex, social phenomena. This cannot be predicated upon an essentialist conceptualization of harmful religion as false religion, which is inimical to understanding religion in the world today—as in times past. We conclude that this conceptualization is a barrier to UK RE meeting both its extrinsic purpose to educate, and one of its intrinsic purposes to foster tolerance and pro-social attitudes.

Foreign body ingestion in children is a common presenting complaint to the emergency department. Although the majority of ingested foreign bodies pass through the gastrointestinal tract unaided, some children will require either non-surgical or surgical intervention. Retained oesophageal foreign bodies may cause a multitude of problems, including mucosal ulceration, inflammation or infection, and more seriously paraoesophageal or retropharyngeal abscess formation, mediastinitis, empyema, oesophageal perforation and aorta-oesophageal fistula formation. We present a case of a 12-month-old child in whom delayed diagnosis of glass ingestion resulted in the development of a retropharyngeal abscess, oesophageal perforation and mediastinitis. Such complications following foreign body ingestion in children are rare but potentially fatal. A high index of suspicion must be maintained in young children presenting with a possible history of foreign body ingestion as a delayed diagnosis may lead to significant morbidity and mortality. We review the literature surrounding paediatric retropharyngeal abscesses and mediastinitis.

This paper, based on 355 survey responses from secondary Religious Education (RE) teachers in England (n = 238) and Scotland (n = 117), explores the background of these educators in terms of qualifications, personal (a)theistic belief, and religion. This research seeks to establish the degree backgrounds of RE teachers, what religion they belong to (if any), and the range of theistic, agnostic, and atheistic teachers currently within the RE profession. This paper, acknowledging the similar and contrasting natures of England and Scotland in terms of the history, status and purpose(s) of the subject, demonstrates that RE teachers in these countries come from diverse academic backgrounds, and that most RE teachers in England and Scotland do not believe in God(s). Nearly half of RE teachers in England and more than half in Scotland have no religion. The granulation to England and Scotland allows us to make tentative links with national census and social attitudes research, and with literature, which posits nuanced secularisation trajectories. Furthermore, the data allow us to cross-tabulate (for example, between degree background and religious beliefs), as well as with the data in extant research about the risks of sanitised and essentialised approaches to teaching religion in schools.

Meningococcal disease remains an important cause of mortality and morbidity in the paediatric population. Survivors of invasive meningococcal disease remain at risk from the long-term sequelae of microvascular disease. Chronic orthopaedic sequelae have been reported infrequently in the orthopaedic and radiology literature and there are no reports in the Emergency Medicine literature. We report the case of a 7-year-old boy who presented to the Emergency Department with a limp; having survived invasive meningococcal disease at the age of 14 months. His radiographs revealed some of the long-term sequelae of this severe disease. We review the literature around the long-term orthopaedic sequelae of meningococcal disease.