08.04.2019: Erlend Roaldsnes, Randi Eikeland and Dag Berild have commented on my article on Lyme borreliosis. They request more information than I can provide within the framework of a comment. The distribution of Borrelia genotypes is different in the USA and Europe. Borrelia burgdoferi sensu stricto is the only type occurring in the USA. It is 'arthritogenic'. In Norway, Borrelia garinii is the source of Bannwarth's syndrome, the most frequent type of neuroborreliosis. Borrelia afzelii causes acrodermatitis, atypical forms of neuroborreliosis (1), and may give rise to diffuse symptoms in the...

30.04.2012: The use of snus cannot be recommended as an alternative to smoking for pregnant women who have difficulty giving up cigarettes. Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of a number of pregnancy complications. The use of snus has increased among young Norwegian women, whereas the number of smokers is declining. Can snus be recommended to pregnant women as an alternative to smoking? Snus is harmful, it maintains and intensifies addiction, and has no scientifically documented effect as a method for breaking smoking habits. A Swedish review article published in the Läkartidningen in 2011 (1)...

17.04.2012: Each year, several thousand patients are injured and die as an effect of undesired events and medical malpractice in the Norwegian health services. Medical emergency interventions undertaken in the air ambulance services can be regarded as especially risky. A nationwide study of prevailing attitudes to patient safety in the air-ambulance services will be initiated this spring, and this could make an important contribution to improving patient safety. Health personnel have the ideal of not harming their patients. «Primum non nocere» – first, do no harm – is the guiding principle of the...

17.04.2012: A tonometer for home monitoring of intraocular pressure may be a useful aid for some glaucoma patients, but there are also implicit problems. Many patients with diabetes take their own blood sugar readings. This may add to their own understanding of their illness and result in better patient follow-up. Glaucoma also entails life-long follow-up with the patient consulting an ophthalmologist for intraocular pressure measurement, usually several times a year. There are various tonometers that may lend themselves to home monitoring and more accurate and user-friendly instruments are gradually...

27.03.2012: The quality register for joint prostheses at the St. Olavs Hospital could become a useful tool for quality assurance and research. The «fast-track» model, which is a knowledge-based, multimodal treatment model for surgical activities (1), was introduced for elective hip and knee prosthetic surgery at St. Olavs Hospital from September 2010. This reorganisation entailed considerable changes in the treatment sequence. We therefore decided to establish an internal quality register, since it has been proven that such registers permit better quality control (2) and serve as a basis for research. The...

27.03.2012: Norway lacks a comprehensive educational programme for health professionals who teach at universities and university colleges and in training programmes for medical specialists Health professions education at university colleges does not always lead to the ex-pected effect in preparing students for their professional practice (1). Most likely, the same applies to programmes for health professionals at the universities, including medical studies. There is a need for a debate on this matter, and the Directorate of Health and the universities should give serious attention to the issue. Norway...

21.02.2012: Around 2005, life expectancy was 2.5 years higher in Molde than in Arendal. It is remarkable that Norwegian cities that are fairly similar in terms of size, income level and population composition have differing levels of mortality. Could differences in the quality of their health services possibly play a role? Furthermore, is the classification of causes of death sufficiently precise? In a recently published report I have attempted to explain the root causes of the differences in mortality between Norwegian towns and cities (1). One hypothesis could be that the differences in life expectancy...

07.02.2012: Somatocognitive therapy has proved highly effective for treating chronic pelvic pain in women. We believe that this therapy should be tested in more gynaecological departments. Long-term pelvic pain is a common cause of women suffering functional impairment and reporting sick (1, 2). The term is used for pain that persists for more than six months in the lower abdomen and pelvis. The condition may be due to disease in a number of organ systems, including the peritoneum, gastrointestinal tract and urogenital system, but in many cases no specific pathological changes are detected by a...

07.02.2012: Digital volume tomography is a radiological technique for three-dimensional imaging of anatomical structures and pathological changes in the maxillofacial area. We believe it has many advantages over conventional computed tomography. High resolution computed tomography of the type cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a technique based on X-ray transmission projection of specific two-dimensional absorption images. The technique is also called digital volume tomography (DVT) and was originally developed for diagnostics in dental and maxillofacial radiology. The method can be used to produce...

24.01.2012: The Department of Addiction Medicine at Haukeland University Hospital is developing an outpatient group-therapy service for those who want help to gradually reduce and finally cease using addictive drugs. The purpose is to replace these medications with more appropriate strategies to be able to deal with various forms of discomfort. Several articles in this journal have indicated the need for appropriate and sufficient treatment services for people who are addicted to medications (1) – (3). The establishment and development of such services are consistent with the intentions of the National...