IntroductionMedical students are the source of a country's physicians. Determining how medical students select their areas of specialization is the key to achieve a balanced distribution of doctors among all specialties. The objective is to identify the number of medical students who have decided their postgraduate specialty career, their career specialties preference, and factors that may influence their decision to select a particular specialty.MethodsA facility based cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2013 at Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum, Sudan. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire comprising demographic data and questions about future specialties preferences and factors influencing those preferences was distributed to 887 male and female students, (from first to fifth academic years) recruited in the study.ResultsResponse rate was 73% with 647 questionnaires collected, out of 887 eligible medical students. Of the returned questionnaires, 604 were valid. The majority of students (541, 89.6%) have chosen a specialty. Surgery, medicine, paediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology were the most selected specialties. The least selected specialty was anaesthesiology. A significant association was found between gender and specialty choice using Chi-square test (p = 0.00). There was no association between undergraduate level and specialty choice (p = 0.633). The most common reason for choosing a specific specialty was “Personal Interest” (215, 39.7%) followed by being “Helpful to the community” (144, 26.6%).ConclusionSurgery, medicine, paediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology were the most selected specialties.

Background: The cooperation of patients and their acceptance to involve medical students in their care is vital to clinical education. Objective: To explore the attitudes of patients towards medical students at University charity teaching hospital, and to explore the determinants of those attitudes. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at University charity teaching hospital affiliated to University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST). Four hundred and thirty-two patients were interviewed between January and December 2013 using a structured questionnaire. Results: Four hundred and thirty-two patients had responded to all questions they were asked. Of the patients interviewed, 95.2% approved the presence of medical students during the medical consultation. 79.8% of the patients agreed to be examined by students in the presence of a doctor, while 33.5% gave agreement even in the absence of a doctor. More than half of the patients think that it is important that students examine patients as part of their training and 18 % of them were not sure about the importance of clinical examination. Conclusion: The study concluded overall positive attitudes to the medical students involvement by patients. Patients preferred lower number of students to be involved; however, few were aware of their rights. Keywords: Bedside Teaching, Clinical Education, Patients Acceptability.

BackgroundThe use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in treating breast cancer has shown efficacy in downstaging primary tumors, and allows breast conservative surgery to be performed instead of mastectomy. This study aims to evaluate patterns of clinical and pathological response after two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced breast cancer.Materials and MethodsThis is a prospective study. Ninety-eight patients who presented from April 2009 through May 2011 with locally advanced breast cancer and treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included.ResultsThe clinical response rate was 83%; 11 patients (11.2%) had a complete clinical remission (cCR); 71 had a partial remission (72.4%); 13 had stable disease (13.3%), and 3 had progressive disease (3.1%). Seven patients had complete pathological response.ConclusionNeoadjuvant chemotherapy can achieve a high objective response rate in patients with locally advanced breast cancer even after two cycles. We recommend further research to find predictors for response.

Spontaneous subcapsular hematoma of the liver is an extremely rare but potentially life-threatening condition. We report a case of subcapsular hematoma of the liver without any apparent lesion and in the absence of coagulopathy or trauma. A CT scan of the abdomen demonstrated a huge subcapsular hematoma around the liver. The patient was treated conservatively and was discharged home after one week. Up to our knowledge, this is one of the very few reported cases of a spontaneous subcapsular hepatic hematoma.

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy with an increasing incidence over the past few years. Surgery is considered the primary therapeutic option, which often involves lymph node dissection. The aim of this study was to assess the role of carbon nanoparticles, a novel agent, in thyroid cancer surgery. For that purpose, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane and Google Scholar databases from 1 January 2002 to 31 January 2022. Ultimately, 20 articles with a total number of 2920 patients were included in the analysis. The outcome of the analysis showed that the use of carbon nanoparticles is associated with a higher number of harvested lymph nodes (WMD, 1.47, 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.82, p < 0.001) and a lower rate of accidental parathyroid gland removal (OR 0.34, CI 95% 0.24 to 0.50, p < 0.001). Based on these results, we suggest that carbon nanoparticles are applied in thyroid cancer surgery on a wider scale, so that these findings can be confirmed by future research on the subject.