Tribolgy: One Patient, One Disease.

© Am Ang Zhang 2011

Did you enjoy your Cruise?

Sure!

So you can get away from blogging and from Medicine.

I got away from blogging but then it was only the slowness of the Internet that was prohibitive.

Then I realised that perhaps we doctors never could get away from medicine and in a sense I did not want to either.

Medicine has become a hobby.

Cruising is an interesting way to have a holiday, you do not have to pack everyday and you get to meet some really interesting people.

On our Cruise we had dinner with an eminent professor and his wife.

Tribology!!!

Yes, a world class Medical Engineer and all I might want to know about hip and knee replacements.

Wow!

A friend came to our tropical resort to play golf with me. I have not seen him for years as we went our separate ways as he children were growing up. He was a sporty person and played rugby to a professional level.

He was walking a bit funny on the golf course.

“I used to hit 280 yds.”

“What happened”. He now hits 160 yds if he is lucky.

“Bilateral hip replacements.”

Good old rugby.

But that was not all. A year before he had bladder cancer that was diagnosed and luckily it was caught early.

“It was painful but the BCG treatment was good!”

So perhaps my professor was wrong: one patient one disease.

He obviously had hip problems from rugby and then bladder cancer.

So I asked my new found friend.

“There is a theoretical risk as the cobalt in the alloy in particular could be a problem. Check out the Swedish research.”

I told him about my friend and my professor.

“Interesting approach!”

“I know. But it concentrates the mind.”

Nationwide Study of Cancer Risk Among Hip Replacement Patients in Sweden

Lisa B. Signorello et al

In summary, overall cancer risk among hip implant patients was close to expectation. However, we observed these patients to have a statistically significant excess of melanoma and prostate cancer and, after a latency of 15 years or more, of multiple myeloma and bladder cancer.

In contrast, we noted a statistically significant deficit of stomach cancer and suggestive evidence for decreased colorectal cancer risk. The incidence of bone and connective tissue cancers was not statistically significantly higher than expected for either sex in any follow-up period.

Further evidence suggesting an antibiotic effect  comes from a study in Denmark (14),   where a lowered risk of stomach cancer was found among patients with osteoarthritis who underwent hip implant surgery (presumably exposed to both NSAIDs and antibiotics) but not among those who did not have surgery (presumably exposed only to NSAIDs).

However, because this investigation provided the first opportunity to adequately evaluate the long term cancer-related effects of hip implants, the associations that we observed with bladder cancer and multiple myeloma, while also potentially attributable to chance or bias, should be considered carefully and require further in-depth study.

 J Natl Cancer Inst 2001;93:1405–10




To remember our eminent yet formidable Professor of Medicine, Professor MacFadzean: One Patient One Disease.
I would like to pay tribute to our eminent yet formidable Professor of Medicine, Professor MacFadzean, 'Old Mac' as he was 'affectionately' known by us. He taught us two important things right from the start:

First - One patient, one disease. It is useful to assume that a patient is suffering from a single disease, and that the different manifestations all spring from the same basic disease.

Second - Never say never. One must never be too definitive in matters of prognosis. What if one is wrong?

Mysterious Psychosis: One Patient One Disease

Teratoma: An Extract,