No abstract

Overall, medical undergraduate students and interns viewed the educational environment in Oman in a positive light. It is possible that undergraduate students' perceptions of the educational environment may become more favourable as they progress with their medical career and become interns.

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile illness, mostly of under-fives. It is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in the developed countries, with coronary artery abnormalities in 20-25% of untreated patients. This is a retrospective study of patient records of cases of KD in 5 years at Sohar hospital, Oman looking at epidemiology, clinical presentation, investigations and management. In our study, KD occurred mostly in boys under 5,in the first half of the year. All had fever. In decreasing frequency, they had oral mucosal changes, cervical lymphadenopathy, rash, conjunctivitis and extremity changes. Most had raised CRP/ESR, raised platelets, and low haemoglobin. Less than half had a raised white cell count. Serum albumin was done in 44% of admissions, of which 37.5% had low values. 50% admissions had urine microscopy done. Blood cultures, urine cultures, ASOT, Monospot, viral studies, ALT were also done and were all mostly normal. Ultrasound neck was done in one case and chest X-ray in two cases. ECHO showed some abnormality in 50% admissions. 16.7% cases were typical KD, 72.2 % incomplete KD. All (100%) children received the recommended treatment. 5.5% of admissions was unresponsive to IVIG, and responded to methylprednisolone. Our study demonstrates recognition of KD in children in Oman, mostly presenting as incomplete KD. All children(100%) received the recommended treatment.