The differential diagnosis of cystic cervical masses includes cystic thyroid disease or some embryological diseases. Parathyroid cyst is one of the less common causes of the cervical masses. The Swedish anatomist Sandstrom reported the first description of parathyroid cyst in 1880. Up to date, only about 300 cases have been reported in the world literature. They may be functional or nonfunction...

Chronic pain after inguinal hernia repair with prosthetic meshes is recorded in some patients. Although the exact etiology of the pain is not fully understood, it can be related to the trauma to the regional nerves. It is possible to involve these nerves by injuring, suturing, stapling, tacking or compressing them during the operation. Therefore, a delicate surgical approach to the inguinal flo...

The etiology of brain and central nervous system (CNS) tumours is multifactorial and probably differs by tumour type and possibly according to the histology or cell type of origin. Although several risk factors have been studied extensively to provide evidence of their association with brain and CNS cancer, epidemiological research has been hindered by the rarity and diversity of these tumours ...

It is both flattering and humbling to be asked to address this topic, since quite a few people at this meeting could address it equally well or better. In fact, Koji wrote a review with almost exactly the same title 20 years ago (1). However, each of us would address the area somewhat differently. Over the years I have had the privilege of examining blastocysts and implantation sites of a large...

While the physiology, histology and stem cell biology of smell are active fields of contemporary research, smell is probably the sense that physicians knew the least about prior to the 20th century. Joseph-Hippolyte Cloquet (1787–1840) was an anatomist who, in 1815, defended a singular doctoral thesis—On odours, the sense of olfaction and the olfactory organs—then went on to publish, in 1821, t...

The Bristol Bone Dysplasia Registry was established in 1969. The panel included radiologists, paediatricians, orthopaedic surgeons, pathologists, a paediatric biochemist, an anatomist/anthropologist, a veterinary surgeon, dentists and oral surgeons, and a psychiatrist. The panel met every two months. Cases either entered the Registry directly if they were straightforward or after discussion by ...

The book begins with John Henry Biggart’s memories from his personal papers, meticulously dissected by his son, Denis (himself a Consultant Pathologist and academic in Queen’s University). For those interested in social history there are titbits of the times in which he lived from his birth in Belfast in 1905, to his school days, University days (with the remarkable pranks of yesteryear) to the...

The oldest library in Istria (Croatia) is located in the Franciscan Monastery of Pazin, with a rich fund of worthy old books. Our attention was attracted by the book "Chirurgie" written by the German physician, surgeon and anatomist Lorenz Heister in the first half of the 18th century. This worthy book is relatively scanty known in Croatian history of surgery. By studying the contents of the bo...

Portraits of doctors and scientists use attributes of profession and discovery to construct identities: books for learned physicians and microscopes for laboratory researchers, plants for botanists, molecules for chemists and equations for mathematicians. Such accoutrements signal a sitter’s claim to fame, but the less familiar items reveal the full story only once the beholder has had the plea...

Seen in long-term perspectiye the discovery of X-rays and their use as a diagnostic agent must surely rank as one of the major advances in medicine, Though of less immediate practical benefit than were either anaesthesia or antisepsis, the scientific importance was greater and even now, after more than fifty years, new techniques are still being evolved with resulting increases in knowledge. Am...