Tehran University Medical Journal

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background: Giardia lamblia is one of the most prevalent protozoa infections of the human small intestine. Although anyone can be infected by Giardia, women and children are more susceptible. Giardia infection can cause malnutrition, diarrhea and indigestion of fat. In this study, the effect of breast-feeding on the prevalence of Giardia among children is investigated.

Methods: A total of 482 children, aged 6 to 24 months, from the urban areas of Semnan, Damghan and Garmsar in Iran, were enrolled in this survey. Each mother underwent an interview and filled out a questionnaire that included mother's age, family size, birth order of the child, age and sex of the child and type of milk consumed, among other variables. Then, each mother was given a sample container with 30cc of phenol alcohol formaldehyde (PAF) and an applicator for sampling her child's stool. Each mother was trained to consecutively sample her child's stool for three days, to put the stool into the provided container using the applicator and to shake it until the sample and liquid appeared homogenous. The sample was examined using the direct method, using formalin-ether and thionine. Data was analyzed using the c² test and logistic regression using SPSS version 11.5.
Results: The mean age of the children was 13.6(±5.6) months. Of these children, 45.6% were girls. The prevalence of G. lamblia infection was 8.5%. There was a significant relationship between Giardia and the age of the child, education level of the mother and type of milk the child consumed (p<0.05), such that children who had not consumed their mothers' milk were more likely to be infected compared to those who had been breast fed (OR=2.38, 95% CI: 1.13-5.03, P=0.023).
Conclusions: Results show that breast-feeding is a safer method of feeding with regard to Giardia infection. Therefore, mothers should be educated to breast-feed their children and not use other types of milk or milk substitutes. This important issue must be considered by policy makers for education and subsidy programs.

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Background: Inguinal hernia is a common surgical problem which increases with aging especially in men. A common method for treatment is surgical repair using prosthesis, Lichtenstein technique. One frequent complication after inguinal herniorrhaphy is soft tissues seroma. There are several methods to prevent or to drain seroma. Some surgeons suggest the insertion of closed suction drainage system but others disagree. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 42 patients who are candidate for hernia repairing (Lichtenstein technique), referred to Amir Al-Momenin Hospital in Semnan, Iran, from 2011 to 2012, were randomly divided into two groups. So that, the list of eligible patients in the study, were numbered, and then using the patients' code, patients, who assigned an odd number in the registration list, were allocated to group 1, the remainder were placed in group two. The two first numbers in registration list (1 or 2), were randomly assigned to groups. Group 1 underwent hernia surgery without closed suction drainage and the second group underwent hernia surgery with closed suction drainage. The patients were evaluated for seroma, hematoma or wound infection after 24 hours, during days 4 to 7 and days 10 to 15 following surgery. Results: No adverse event including hematoma, seroma or wound infection occurred in either group with or without closed suction drainage in the first 10 days after surgery. Only one patient carried wound infection during days 10 to 15 following operation who was in the group with closed drainage (P=1.00). Conclusion: In this study, Seroma and hematoma was not observed in patients with and without closed suction drainage. To avoid drains' complications, indiscriminate use of antibiotics, prolonged hospital stay, we do not recommend the use of drains in this type of surgery.