BackgroundResearch activities for medical students and residents (trainees) are expected to serve as a foundation for the acquisition of basic research skills. Some medical schools therefore recommend research work as partial requirement for certification. However medical trainees have many difficulties concerning research, for which reason potential remedial strategies need to be constantly developed and tested. The views of medical trainees are assessed followed by their use and appraisal of a novel “self-help” tool designed for the purposes of this study with potential for improvement and a wider application.MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional survey of volunteering final-year medical students and residents of a medical school in Cameroon.ResultsThis study surveyed the opinions of a total of 120 volunteers of which 82 (68%) were medical students. Three out of 82 (4%) medical students reported they had participated in research activities with a publication versus 10 out of 38 residents (26%). The reported difficulties in research for these trainees included referencing of material (84%), writing a research proposal (79%), searching for literature (73%) and knowledge of applicable statistical tests (72%) amongst others. All participants declared the “self-help” tool was simple to use, guided them to think and better understand their research focus.ConclusionMedical trainees require much assistance on research and some “self-help” tools such as the template used in this study might be a useful adjunct to didactic lectures.
Isolated congenital fusion of the gums is a rare anomaly. Early surgical treatment is indicated, as longstanding cases will impair normal feeding leading to nutritional and growth problems. We report the first case in the Yaoundé Gynaeco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital, which was successfully managed surgically.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the interest of MRI in the diagnosis of spinal disorders in our area. Method: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and retrospective study during a nine-month period from January to September 2015 involving all patients who performed a spine MRI in the Imaging Department of Douala General Hospital. All the patients were scanned using an open-sided mid-field MRI APERTO LUCENT (0.4 T) using sagittal and axial slices in T1-weighted and T2-weighted FSE spin echo and STIR sagittal slices and T1 gado. Water-fat saturation (WFS) slices were obtained after injection of a contrast agent. All the data collected were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and Sphinx version 4.0. Results: 220 patients were recruited. The mean age was 46.34. There was male predominance with a sex ratio of 1.5. The main indication was lumbar spine pain (36.8%), followed by cervical spine pain, sensory and motor disorder. Neurosurgeon (33.6%), neurologist (23.1%) and rheumatologist (13.6%) were the main referring physicians. The lumbar spine was the most explored (53.2%). Discal hernia (46.6%), arthrosis (31.3%) and degenerative disc disease (25.5%) were the main observed lesion. Infectious disorders were mainly represented by spondylitis (5%); Traumatic disorders by spondylolisthesis (8.6%). Tumors were mainly metastasis (4%). 21.3% of MRI were normal. MRI-clinical concordance was 78.63%. Conclusion: MRI allows an accurate assessment of spinal and spinal cord pathologies without exposing patients to radiation. It helped to confirm or refute the diagnosis suspected by clinics. However, its availability is limited in our country.
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