Thymoma represents <1% of all mediastinal tumors in children. Less than 50 cases of pediatric thymoma are reported in the literature. Thymomas are considered to be highly aggressive in pediatric patients, especially when age is <10 years. Paraneoplastic syndromes, of which around 70% are myasthenia gravis, correlate with poor prognosis. In this article, we report a case of a thymoma in an 8-year-old boy, who had favorable histopathology (Masaoka stage I, WHO type B2), despite the presence of young age and necrosis along with absence of myasthenia gravis. We have also reviewed the available literature on pediatric thymoma.

A rare case of malignant Brenner tumour of ovary manifesting with intestinal perforation due to colonic infiltration is elaborated in the present report. Brenner’s tumour accounts for 1%–2% of all ovarian neoplasms and malignant Brenner tumour is even rarer and only about 5% of Brenner tumours are malignant. A 62-year-old woman came to surgical emergency with 1-month history of abdominal pain, vomiting and constipation with a palpable mass in right iliac fossa. Abdominal radiograph was suggestive of colonic obstruction. Contrast-enhanced CT of the abdomen revealed cystic right ovarian mass of 10.2×8.8 cm2 with pneumoperitoneum. Exploratory laparotomy was done, which revealed mass arising from right ovary involving terminal ileum, cecum and ascending colon. Possibility of ovarian malignancy was kept. Patient underwent debulking surgery along with ileostomy and descending colon mucous fistula was created. Histology was compatible with malignant Brenner tumour of the ovary.

BACKGROUND: Diarrhea is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in under-five children in developing world like India. WHO & Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) diarrheal management guidelines encourage mothers and caretakers to treat diarrhoea at home by giving ORS and oral rehydration therapy (ORT) to reduce the duration, severity, hospitalization, overall medical costs and death. OBJECTIVES: i) to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of mothers on home care of acute diarrhoeal diseases and ii) To find out the factors affecting it, if any. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Community based cross-sectional study was conducted for three months duration among 76 mothers of slum-dwelling under five children (2-59 months) in Bankura. Information about KAP on management of acute diarrhoeal diseases was obtained by interview of mother using schedule based on WHO & IMNCI diarrheal management guidelines. RESULTS: In this study, majority mothers (64.7%) of children were of BPL category and mean schooling years of mothers was 7.97±4.12. Majority of mothers' knowledge was average (66.2%) and favourable attitude was (76.5%). While 72.2% mothers performed average practice; only 9.3% of mothers performed good practice. Education, occupation and socioeconomic status (SES) were the influencing factors of KAP on home care of diarrhea. Conclusions: A lot of gap was still present in knowledge, attitude and practice of home management of acute diarrheal diseases in an urban slum of Bankura. Health providers are needed to be skilled, motivated to percolate the information to mothers regarding home care of diarrhea.

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Background and Objectives:Fistula in ano is a common disease seen in the surgical outpatient department. Many procedures are advocated for the treatment of fistula in ano. However, none of the procedures is considered the gold standard. The latest addition to the list of treatment options is video-assisted anal fistula treatment (VAAFT). It is a minimally invasive, sphincter-saving procedure with low morbidity. The aim of our study was to compare the results with a premier study done previously.Methods:The procedure involves diagnostic fistuloscopy and visualization of the internal opening, followed by fulguration of the fistulous tract and closure of the internal opening with a stapling device or suture ligation. The video equipment (Karl Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany) was connected to an illuminating source.Results:The study was conducted from July 2010 to March 2014. Eighty-two patients with fistula in ano were operated on with VAAFT and were followed up according to the study protocol. The recurrence rate was 15.85%, with recurrences developing in 13 cases. Postoperative pain and discomfort were minimal.Conclusion:VAAFT is a minimally invasive procedure performed under direct visualization. It enables visualization of the internal opening and secondary branches or abscess cavities. It is a sphincter-saving procedure and offers many advantages to patients. Our initial results with the procedure are quite encouraging.

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Introduction: Medical students are a subgroup of the general population who are more vulnerable to poor sleep quality. Objectives: To assess the sleeping pattern and determinants among the medical undergraduate students of a Government teaching Hospital, Kolkata. Materials and Methods: An Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 293 undergraduate medical students of a teaching Hospital of Kolkata from October 2017 to December 2017 using a pre-designed, pre-tested structured questionnaire, Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Index (PSQI) score and Epworth Daytime Sleepiness Scale (EDSS). Results: About 24.91% of students had daytime sleepiness as per Epworth Daytime Sleepiness Scale (EDSS) and about 63.48% had poor sleep quality as per Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Index (PQSI) score. There was significant correlation between Poor Sleep Quality (PSQI) score and age, year of study, hostel residence, socio-economic condition, body mass index, smoking, alcohol intake, caffeine consumption, exercise, stress and excessive use of mobile/laptop. EDS score was significantly associated with age, semester of study, residence and habit of exercise. Conclusion: To improve the sleep quality of medical students, we should provide a positive environment by establishing counselling facilities and promoting good sleep hygiene.

The art of developing potential anticancer molecules involves a reasonable selection of core moiety and tethering with biologically active pharmacophores. We report a library of rationally designed twelve triazole tethered benzimidazole molecules as novel potential inhibitors for cancer. Their synthesis followed a facile copper-catalysed cycloaddition reaction with good yields. Although in-silico molecular docking studies of the synthesized compounds with epigenetic protein viz., PRMTs showed inhibition, the compounds bearing amino acid and aryl groups exhibited excellent performance. The potential anti-cancer activity of the library of molecules are further evaluated in vitro against the selected cancer cell lines (MCF-7, DU145, PC3 and HepG2) besides methylation assays. In vitro results revealed that the compounds bearing amino acid and aryl groups exhibited better activity and particularly, 3-CF 3 -phenyl derivative (IC 50 = 4.11 μm against MCF-7) exerted prominent anticancer potency against all the tested cell lines. The observed strong anticancer potency of lead compound is supported by its strong binding nature noted in in-silico molecular docking studies.