OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy of a birth ball exercise programme conducted by physiotherapists on pain relief, psychological care, and facilitation of the labour process at a labour ward in a regional hospital. DESIGN Case series with before-after comparisons. SETTING Kwong Wah Hospital, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS Chinese women admitted to the labour ward for spontaneous vaginal delive...

INTRODUCTION Parecoxib is occasionally used for analgesia in postprocedural patients. The clinical efficacy of parecoxib used for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is controversial. The aim of the study was to determine the clinical efficacy of preprocedure administration of parecoxib for therapeutic ERCP patients. METHODS Eighty-five patients who underwent therapeutic ERC...

A double blind comparison of conventional premedication (pethidine, promethazine, and atropine) and neuroleptanalgesia (droperidol and phenoperidine) failed to demonstrate any difference in either the comfort of the patient or ease of instrumentation in 70 upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopies. Further trials are needed before conventional premedication is abandoned.

To investigate cardiovascular effects in 32 ventilated neonates, given either pancuronium or pethidine, computer based data were analysed for five minutes preceding and for 20 minutes after administration of the drugs. Heart rate and direct mean arterial pressure remained unchanged but arterial pressure variability decreased with each drug.