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Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine whether mobile phones and mobile phone locating devices are associated with improved ambulance response times in central London., Patients and Methods: All calls from the London Ambulance Service database since 1999 were analysed. In addition, 100 consecutive patients completed a questionnaire on mobile phone use whilst attending the St Thomas's Hospital Emergency Department in central London., Results: Mobile phone use for emergencies in central London has increased from 4007 (5% of total) calls in January 1999 to 21,585 (29%) in August 2004. Ambulance response times for mobile phone calls were reduced after the introduction of the mobile phone locating system (mean 469 s versus 444 s; P = 0.0195). The proportion of mobile phone calls made from mobile phones for life-threatening emergencies was higher after injury than for medical emergencies (41% versus 16%, P = 0.0063). Of patients transported to the accident and emergency department by ambulance, 44% contacted the ambulance service by mobile phone. Three-quarters of calls made from outside the home or work-place were by mobile phone and 72% of patients indicated that it would have taken longer to contact the emergency services if they had not used a mobile., Conclusions: Since the introduction of the mobile phone locating system, there has been an improvement in ambulance response times. Mobile locating systems in urban areas across the UK may lead to faster response times and, potentially, improved patient outcomes.

Fourteen patients have required vena caval interruption in a period of 12 years at St Thomas' Hospital. Half of these patients had an underlying malignancy. None of these patients have had clinical or lung scan evidence of recurrent emboli. There were no deaths related to filter insertion and no patient died of a pulmonary embolism. Vena caval interruption is a procedure that is rarely necessary but may be valuable in carefully selected patients.

Longitudinal tracheal tear (of the trachealis muscle), an unusual but acknowledged complication of pharyngolaryngectomy, was encountered during a total pharyngo-oesophagolaryngectomy with gastric replacement. Due to serious ventilatory difficulties a rapid repair was required to obtain an airtight seal to allow continued mechanical ventilation. A reinforced polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) vascular graft was used as an intratracheal stent to seal the air leak. This technique proved effective and the tracheal defect had healed by the time the stent was removed 10 days later.

Subcutaneous mastectomy with immediate silicone prosthetic implantation has been performed on 32 patients. The main indications for this were severe fibrocystic disease and non-invasive carcinoma. Five patients with advanced invasive carcinoma were also included. An improved operative technique is described. The indications and results are discussed.

A technique for assessing the anatomy and luminal diameter of the long saphenous vein by direct injection phlebography in patients being considered for reversed femoropopliteal vein bypass surgery is described. In 25 consecutive patients, 20 single veins, four double veins and one network of veins were all correctly delineated by this technique and subsequently confirmed at operation. Five saphenous veins could not be demonstrated above the knee but at operation one vein was found to be present and double from knee to groin. The minimum mean luminal diameter of the saphenous vein estimated from the X-ray after correction for magnification was 3.5 mm +/- 1.12 which was significantly less than the mean external diameter found at operation, 4.6 mm +/- 1.33 (P less than 0.001). The vein diameter found at operation invariably proved to be larger than the luminal diameter estimated from the X-ray. This allows a confident preoperative assumption of the minimum diameter that will be obtained after dissection and distension of the vein.

A method of washing the outside of surgeons' gloves with cetrimide is described. Experiments on animals showed that the method resulted in a considerable reduction in the amount of intraperitoneal contamination by starch powder.