Patients with oral and facial injuries presenting as emergencies to the accident and emergency (A&E) unit at Arrowe Park Hospital have been used to compare the treatment method of direct referral to oral and maxillofacial surgery with that of the routine A&E procedure. A quicker and more effective treatment was administered by direct referral of patients to oral and maxillofacial surgery and an argument for such specialist staff to be based in A&E departments is advanced.
The adult new patient attendances at a District General Hospital for 1988 and 1989 have been analysed and the patients with oral and maxillofacial injuries identified. The injuries were classified using the International Classification of Diseases. The time spent undertaking emergency surgery out of hours by each firm using the operating facility has been analysed. An argument for a national district service in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is developed and advanced drawing on the results obtained from the study.
Berzelius failed to make use of Faraday's electrochemical laws in his laborious determination of equivalent weights.