Scottish Medical Journal

Vasectomy, in experienced hands, is a simple procedure which produces lasting sterility provided a careful follow-up of seminal tests is performed, and continued, until two consecutive negative tests have been produced. Loss of working time is negligible, and unpleasant sequelae are extremely rare. Sexual performance is, if anything, improved after the operation and it is extremely rare to encounter anyone who has later regretted it.

There has been a rapid increase in the number of female sterilisations performed over the last 6 years. The reasons for this together with the indications for sterilisation are discussed. The different forms of sterilisation operation currently performed are discussed and an attempt made to evaluate the relative merits of each.

A series of 810 laparoscopic sterilisations performed in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, is presented and the results discussed. The view is expressed that this form of sterilisation may well become the method of choice in most gynaecological units within the next 5 years.

Lipoprotein lipase activity has been measured in both pre- and post-heparin plasma samples from 6 patients with Primary Type IV hyperlipoproteinaemia and from 6 normal subjects. Post-heparin lipoprotein lipase activity was of the same order in plasma from both groups. Appreciable activity was, however, noted in plasma collected from the Type IV patients prior to administration of heparin. Lipase activity was minimal in such samples from normal individuals.

In a study of potassium metabolism in patients with advanced chronic renal failure, total body potassium was measured in 36 non-dialysed patients using the Merlin mobile whole-body monitor. These values were compared with the expected ‘normal’ values as estimated from known regression relationships of total body potassium on height and age and on height, weight and age. Five of the 36 patients had measured total body potassiums significantly greater than expected. A clinical condition in which excessive total body potassium exists does not appear to have been previously reported.

Of 73 patients admitted to hospitals in the West of Scotland suffering from clinical leptospirosis during the 10 years 1960–69, 63 (86%) suffered from infection by strains of the serogroup canicola; of these, 22 (34%) were piggery workers employed on infected premises. In 16 other patients infected by canicola the presumed source of infection was a dog, while in the remaining 25 the source was unknown. Ten patients (14%) were infected by strains of the serogroup icterohaemorrhagiae, 9 with a history of exposure to rats and one a pig farmer. These observations, with the results of a serological survey to detect past infection, indicate that in the West of Scotland canicola fever is an occupational risk in persons whose work involves continuous close contact with pigs. The risk is probably greater in farms fattening purchased stock than in breeding farms. One farm, responsible for more than half of the pig-transmitted canicola illnesses, illustrates the persistence for many years of enzootic leptospirosis. There is no evidence of pig-transmitted canicola infection in England and Wales. In common with England and Wales, there is evidence in Scotland that infection by leptospirae of the serogroup hebdomadis is an occupational risk in dairy farmers.