A Snake “Playing 'Possum”

Liver cholesterol: is it playing possum in NASH?

SINCE NONALCOHOLIC STEATOHEPATITIS (NASH) became an accepted entity in 1980, its pathogenic mechanisms have remained obscure. Strong associations with central obesity, type 2 diabetes, and dyslipidemia have always suggested NASH is a metabolic disorder (2, 7, 19, 23), and by 2003 the connection to insulin resistance was securely evidence based (6, 21). It has remained unclear, however, why only...

Use of Snake Antivenom and Clinical Outcomes in Snake Envenomation: A Retrospective Study in a Tertiary Hospital in Penang, Malaysia

POSSUM and P-POSSUM: Predictors of Morbidity and Mortality in Laparoscopic Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass?

Background: Evidence to support the use of Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enumeration of Mortality and morbidity (POSSUM) and Portsmouth-POSSUM (P-POSSUM) to predict outcomes in bariatric surgery is sparse. Objectives: The aim of this study is prospectively evaluate their usefulness in laparoscopic gastric bypass. Setting: University Hospital Methods: All patients undergoing...

Evaluation of POSSUM and P-POSSUM as a tool for prediction of surgical outcomes in the Indian population.

BACKGROUND Increased scrutiny and the need to institute a truly patient centered approach to surgical care has motivated the growing interest in measuring the quality of surgical care through comparative surgical audit. This study aimed to assess the validity of the POSSUM (Physiological and Operative Severity Score for enumeration of Mortality and Morbidity) and P-POSSUM (Portsmouth-POSSUM) sc...

Snake Venom, Anti-snake Venom & Potential of Snake Venom

Many active secretions produced by animals have been employed in the development of new drugs to treat diseases such as hypertension and cancer. Snake venom toxins contributed significantly to the treatment of many medical conditions. Venomous snakes have a bad reputation and rightly so because of their often deadly bites. But what makes a snake’s bite so deadly is the venom. Of the 3000 snake ...