Icky Cutesy Research Review
Cutesy
“The Case of the Burly Wee Man,” Archives of Environmental
Health, vol. 28, no. 5, May 1974, pp. 297-8.
Cutesy
“The Nosocomial Colonization of T. Bear,” W.T. Hughes, B. Williams, B. Williams, and T. Pearson, Infection Control, vol. 7, no. 10, October 1986, pp. 495-500. (Thanks to Freidrich Topl for bringing this to our attention.) The authors explain that:
A national effort to reduce nosocomial infections
includes a program developed at the National Institutes of Health to encourage
handwashing
in hospitals
and day care centers.... One of the items used is a stuffed toy T.
Bear to be dispensed to the hospitalized child. Considering the manner in
which children handle stuffed toys, we suspected the T. Bear might
serve as a “fomite” for
transmission of nosocomial microbes. A prospective study of 39 sterilized
T. Bears revealed that all became colonized with bacteria, fungi, or
both within 1 week of hospitalization. Hospital acquired organisms cultured
from the T. Bear included Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus
aureus,
alpha streptococci, Corynebacterium acnes, Micrococcus sp, Klebsiella
pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Bacillus sp, and species
of Candida,
Cryptococcus, Trichosporon, Aspergillus and others. Concomitant cultures
of the patients revealed similar isolates. Although the T. Bear handwashing
campaign should not be discredited, the promotional toy may pose an
unnecessary expense and hazard and should not be used in hospitals or day care
centers.
Icky
“The Therapeutic Value of Medical Photography,” J.D. Bennett, T.J. Woolford, and C. Lundall, Journal of Audiovisual Media in Medicine, vol. 16, no. 4, October 1993, p. 173. The authors, who are at the Manchester (UK) Royal Infirmary, explain that:
Medical photography is shown to
have therapeutic value in illustrating to a patient a previously hidden
clinical lesion. The sight of the
extent and nature of a hole in her nasal septum which the patient
had caused
by picking her nose allowed her to stop this habit where previous
medication and psychotherapy had failed.
Icky
“Abdominoscrotal Hydrocele Mimicking a Herniation of the Bladder,” J.F.
Redman and K.A. Ick, Southern Medical Journal, vol. 94, no. 2,
February 2001, pp. 235-236.
Cutesy
“The Swedish Pimple; Or, Thoughts on Specialization,” J.D.
Bernhard, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, vol. 32, no.
3, March 1995, pp. 505-9.
Intriguingly Icky
“The Cow With Zits, ” W.J. Pories, Current Surgery, vol. 58, no 1, January 2001, p. 1.
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