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This retrospective analytical study aimed at making a database of patients who underwent renal transplant from 31 December 2004 to 31 December 2006 under the Faculty of Medicine renal transplant program. The objective was to build a profile of renal transplant patients with focus on post KT infections and complications of renal transplants. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used. A total of 72 patients were studied; 18 (25%) had died by February 2007. Forty-three patients (58.3%) were interviewed in person, 17 were interviewed over the phone and 12 patients could not be contacted. Of those who were interviewed, 28 (38.9%) were on azathioprine, prednisolone and cyclosporine, while 15 (20.8%) were on predni-solone, cyclosporin and mycophenolate mofetil. Four patients had symptomatic cytomegalovirus infection and five had tuberculosis post transplant. Of all infections, the most commonly reported was urinary tract infection (11 cases). Thirty-three (45.8 %) had received induction therapy with either basiliximab (n = 8) or daclizumab (n = 25). Acute rejection was the most commonly en-countered complication, with nine cases (12.5%) being reported over the study period. Of late complications, most were due to immunosuppression. Overall, the 2-year survival was 75%. There was no significant difference between the centers of transplant.

Acute renal failure (ARF) is a common complication of sepsis and carries a high mortality. Renal replacement therapy (RRT) during the acute stage is the mainstay of therapy. Va-rious modalities of RRT are available. Continuous RRT using convective methods are preferred in sepsis-induced ARF, especially in hemodynamically unstable patients, although clear evidence of benefit over intermittent hemodialysis is still not available. Peritoneal dialysis is clearly inferior, and is not recommended. Early initiation of RRT is probably advantageous, although the optimal timing of dialysis is yet unknown. Higher doses of RRT are more likely to be beneficial. Use of bio-compatible membranes and bicarbonate buffer in the dialysate are preferred. Anticoagulation during dialysis must be carefully adjusted and monitored.

This study assesses the impact of a number of characteristics pertaining to fruit processing firms in the Western Province in Sri Lanka to adopt the Sri Lankan Standards (SLS). It hypothesized that in the presence of a “mandatory” government regulation to adopt the SLS on the firm, the decision of the management to “invest” on it without removing any of their major products in the product mix or to exercise a “product exit” (i.e. removing a major product) will depend on factors such as the type of ownership, recent modifications made to the facility by introducing modern processing technologies, other enhanced food safety controls in place, whether the firm is involved with international markets, availability of skilled labour, and annual returns of the firm (adjusted to the number of employees and major products). The primary data collected through a series of in-depth personnel interviews with quality assurance managers and site visits to 36 firms during May to July 2005 were analyzed using Logit Regression technique. The results suggest that firms that modify their facilities, hire skilled labour, promote exports, and possess other advanced food safety controls have a tendency to adopt the SLS without a partial exit. The outcome of the analysis elaborates that policy makers must take into account the business environment of the firm implicitly and explicitly in their attempts to adopt the mandate for the implementation of enhanced food safety controls like the SLS on agri-food processing enterprises.