Background The perception of organ donation and brain death among Syrian population has not been previously explored. The goal of this study is to evaluate the attitude and knowledge of organ donation among Syrians and the willingness of this population to donate their organs. Methods We conducted a survey-based cross-sectional study in four hospitals in Aleppo, Syria in November 2019. Patient demographic, awareness of brain death; and attitude toward organ donation were collected and analyzed. Results A total of 350 individuals were invited to participate in the survey among whom 303 (197 females, 106 males) agreed to participate in the study (87% response rate). The majority of our participants (n = 249, 82%) heard about organ donation with television (n = 166, 55%), social media (n = 77, 25%), and the internet (n = 77, 25%) being the most common sources of information. When assessing knowledge about brain death, only 40% (n = 116) answered 3 or more questions (out of 5) correctly. Fifty-eight percent (n = 176) of respondents agreed with the idea of organ donation and 183 (62%) would like to donate their organs one day. The leading motivation to organ donation was the desire to help (n = 234, 77%), while the most common reason to refuse donation was the refusal to disfigure a dead body by removing an organ (n = 125, 41%). Religious reasons were cited as motivation for organ donation by 43% of participants (n = 130), and a reason for refusing to donate organs by 24% (n = 71). Most respondents (n = 261, 88%) were unaware of the laws and legislations related to organ donation in Syria. When asked if religion and law were encouraging organ donation, 76% of respondents (n = 226) would donate their organs. Although more positive attitude was found in those with better brain death knowledge (score ≥ 3), this did not translate into more willingness to donate organs in this group of participants. Conclusions The promotion of organ donations from deceased donors is a necessity given the rising shortage of organs. The information provided by this study could help policy makers build future strategies to promote deceased organ donation programs and overcome current obstacles preventing such initiatives from achieving their goals.

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Epilepsy is a pathological condition characterized by seizures of muscle tension and convulsions in which the patient is unable to control himself, resulting in various complications and injuries. In this paper we talk about a rare case that combines a shoulder dislocation with a fracture of the surgical neck of the humerus after an epileptic seizure. The patient came to the hospital with clinical symptoms directed at dislocating the shoulder after an epileptic seizure, but careful examination and radiography revealed the presence of a fracture of the surgical neck of the humerus, so the management needed experience to repair two serious traumatic injuries. In the light of the foregoing, the need for clinical knowledge regarding such injuries in terms of diagnosis and methods of management and treatment is very necessary especially that neglect or wrong diagnosis will lead to very bad results, the most important of which are chronic pain, disability and stiffness.

Introduction and importance: Pott’s disease is a form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and has a global increase in incidence. The diagnosis should be made early to avoid neurological deficiency or deformity of the spine. Case presentation: A 2-year-old and 6-month-old boy was admitted with fever and unspecific generalized pain, the examination revealed mild hyperreflexia in the lower extremities, isotope scan showed increased uptake in the T8 vertebra. MRI demonstrated destruction in the T8 vertebra with kyphotic deformity and abscess anterior to T7, T8, and T9 levels with an epidural abscess at the T8 level extending to the spinal canal and compressing the spinal cord. The patient underwent a surgical procedure with a transthoracic approach, the decompression of the spinal canal was performed through T8 corpectomy, the reduction of kyphosis was performed and the internal fixation with a dynamic cylinder and lateral titanium plate was carried out. Microbiologic examination suggests Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Clinical discussion: Pott’s disease (spinal TB) is extremely rare in the young children population, and surgical treatment is reported only in a few reports, and it is considered a technical challenge. There are several surgical approaches during childhood, for upper thoracic spinal TB, the posterior approach is easy, minimally invasive, safe, reliable, and effective. But it had the worst outcomes. In contrast, the anterior approach provides direct access to the lesions. Conclusion: More research are needed to detect the best choice in the management of thoracic spinal TB in children.