Capsules

CJ With the demand for gamma globulin already far greater than the supply, three Harvard investigators reported on another use for it: preventing the spread of infectious hepatitis (a liver infection causing jaundice). The Harvardmen studied 81 families where jaundice had broken out, found that the disease spread within the family 48% of the time when G.G. was not given. In families where G.G. was given preventively after the first outbreak, only one additional case turned up.

P: Three Decatur, Ill. doctors kept tab on 1,000 consecutive house calls, last week reported their principal conclusion in the A.M.A. Journal: one-fourth of the calls were unnecessary; the patients could just as well have come to the office. On strictly medical grounds, almost two-thirds of the home visits might have been classified as needless, the doctors added, but they took account of "other circumstances": a mother tied down with children and no babysitter; patients who needed emotional reassurance. Two-thirds of all home calls were to treat women.

P: In London, the pharmaceutical house, British Schering, Ltd., announced a new drug for taking the terror out of visits to the dentist. Sedative capsules of Oblivon, a trade name for methylpentynol, taken beforehand, "removed apprehension" but not the pain in 189 out of 200 test patients. British Schering is now making lists of other standard anxiety situations in which, they hope, Oblivon may obliviate.

P: A World Conference on Medical Education, meeting in London, heard an eminent British neurosurgeon, Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, denounce the practice of having medical students sit in the gallery watching operation after operation. "A shocking waste of time," said Sir Geoffrey. "They would be much better employed in the wards." Besides, said Sir Geoffrey, too many surgeons wax theatrical before a student audience, "give tongue only to reprimands or agonized cries about the incompetence of their assistants . . . This is often good entertainment, [but it is] a bad example to their juniors who may come to believe that bluster and theatrical imbecilities are the sign of a good surgeon."

P: To encourage more doctors to join the Regular Army, Washington announced that medics who formerly signed up for an indefinite term may now return to civilian life after three years, if they choose. The new rule will not affect the doctors the Army has to draft.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.