Tasmanian stroke patients flown to Melbourne
A lack of stroke specialists means that Tasmanians requiring specialist procedures for strokes and aneurysms will be flown to Melbourne for treatment, the ABC reports.
The Tasmanian Health Service said the staff shortage was because the state’s two interventional neuroradiologists were unavailable due to a combination of illness, isolation and leave requirements.
Patients requiring time-critical procedures such as stroke reperfusion, clot retrieval inserting coils to treat aneurysms will be transferred to the Austin Hospital in Melbourne until a neuroradiologist returns to work on Sunday, a spokesperson said.
Health service unions said the situation highlighted Tasmania’s dependence on a small number of key personnel particularly in some specialities,” he said.
Head injuries linked to smell loss
Olfactory tests should be considered in head injury patients, US researchers suggest, after finding physical trauma may be linked to smell loss.
A study of 5,961 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities participants revealed those with prior head injury were more likely to report subjective olfactory dysfunction and have objective anosmia than those without (24% vs 20%, difference: 4%, 95% CI: 1% to 6% and 15% vs 13%, difference: 2%, 95% CI: 0.1% to 4%, respectively).
The condition — subjective and objective — was most prominent in individuals with two or more, or more severe, head injuries, the authors found, after performing logistic regression models, adjusted for sociodemographics and medical comorbidities including cognitive status.
Despite this, head-trauma patients had lower concordance between subjective and objective assessment (72% vs 77%, difference: -5%, 95% CI: -8% to -3%), the authors reported in JAMA Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery.
“Taken together, there should be consideration of objective psychophysical olfactory assessment in patients with head injury; this is particularly important because poor olfaction has previously been associated with multiple negative health outcomes,” they wrote.