International Physiology

Wound represents one of the biggest surgical dilemmas with great variation in care. The reason is due to the different variants in the nature of wound & treatment, limited evidence convincing in wound care and disparate opinions among treating doctors & nurses. Tissue injury leading to a wound is a platform for multidisciplinary interventions. A wound, whether created by a scalpel, trauma or infection, undergoes a reparative process in a definite sequential manner. Hence, evidence based care should be followed thereby ensuring optimum care to the patient as well as the wound. Keywords: Wound Healing; Evidence Based Medicine; Wound Management.

The nervous system normally adjusts the rate of alveolar ventilation as per the demands of the body so that partial pressure of oxygen (PO2) and partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2) in the arterial blood are hardly altered, even during heavy exercise and other respiratory stress situations. Respiratory centres are classified into two types i.e. medullary and pontine. These centres contain various neurons like Dorsal respiratory group of neurons (DRG) controls inspiration and Ventral group of neurons (VRG) controls expiration along with other centres controlling the rate and depth of respiration. Reflexes like cough reflex, sneeze reflex and J reflex are mediated through these centres. Central and peripheral control of respiration is mainly regulated by PCO2 and PO2. Keywords: Alveolar Ventilation; Respiratory Centres; Cough Reflex; Sneeze Reflex; J Reflex.

Lymphedema is a disease affecting lymph flow causing symptoms of pain, oedema, and increased chance of infection. There are different modalities of treatment of lymphedema and includes decongestive compression therapy and methods to cause debunking of the oedema. Recently we came across use of LLLT in lymphedema treatment as well as a hand-held low-level laser machine. We share our experience of the application of the hand-held laser device in the management of lymphedema. Keywords: Low Level Laser Device; Lymphedema.

Medical teachers work tirelessly to develop innovative and effective educational tools that enhance and supplement the conventional didactic lectures. We introduced crossword puzzles prior to didactic lectures, as a supplemental learning tool to help students get primed with upcoming terms and concepts. Before traditional lectures, the crossword puzzles were administered in groups of 8 students each (n=73) on two different occasions. They were allowed to discuss and refer to books/internet to solve the puzzles. A batch of 82 students was not given crossword puzzles served as the control group. A Multiple Choice Question test (MCQ) was conducted and the scores in crossword group and control group were compared. Students’ perceptions on the crossword puzzles were assessed using a questionnaire. The average raw scores in MCQ test of the students in crossword group (n=73) and control group (n=82) were 36.43 ± 6.14 and 31.59 ± 7.18 respectively (p =0.000) and the students’ satisfaction with this learning method was >75% for most of the items of the questionnaire. Crossword puzzles constitute an interactive and fun-filled active learning with peers in a non-threatening environment. Given before teaching the topic, they primed the students with the upcoming concepts and later during traditional teaching, the same were reinforced. Solving crossword puzzles enabled students to self-assess their own understanding of concepts and also to identify their weak areas, which can be corrected later through a targeted approach. Keywords: Crossword; Active Learning; Self- directed Learning.