THE EXCHANGE | Newsletter August 2020

Rheumatoid arthritis is a polyarticular autoimmune disease which affects multiple joints of the body. It severely compromises the individual’s quality of life leading to a significant socio-economic burden on the family and society. Multiple joint replacement is an effective solution for treating these patients and improving their overall health. A challenging surgical procedure, Medanta Institute of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Orthopaedics specialises in such complex multiple joint replacement surgeries. The team has the collective ability to replace any joint in the body and has till date performed over 40,000 joint replacement surgeries.

Liver transplant recipients are prone to weight gain and metabolic syndrome. This is due to several reasons such as improvement in diet, immunosuppression and reduced stress with improvement of the catabolic state. Calcineurin inhibitors increase post-transplant hypertension and dyslipidemia while corticosteroids increase all components of metabolic syndrome. Heimbach et al showed in their series that more than 50% patients who had undergone liver transplantation for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) had post liver transplant weight gain with body mass index (BMI) > 35kg/m2, post-transplant diabetes mellitus and recurrence of NASH in the allograft. Patients often attempt reducing weight through diet and exercise. However, for several patients this is not adequate as they usually struggle with maintaining the weight loss.

Global health agencies have prescribed masks as the best defense against COVID-19. Here’s a brief history of how masks came into existence and evolved with time.
With a long cloak and grotesque bird-like mask, the European ‘plague doctor’ was a disconcerting sight. The eccentric headpiece served as a kind of primitive ‘gas mask’ for medical practitioners in the 17th-century Europe, designed to protect its wearer from the foul odours associated with the plague. Physicians completed the look with a wide-brimmed hat, long coat, and wooden cane (which enabled them to examine patients without getting too close).