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The Human Cancer Situation
Published in Samuel C. Morris, Cancer Risk Assessment, 2020
Cancer may produce pain, suffering, loss of a body part, impaired speech, disfigurement, disability, and death. It can bring personal catastrophy for the victims and their families either as a direct result of the disease or indirectly through its economic consequences. These may include social isolation, unwanted job changes, loss of promotion and educational opportunities, home relocation, and economic dependence. The environment surrounding a cancer case may create anxiety, reduced self-esteem, resentment, and emotional problems. Social costs fall on the victims, their families, friends, co-workers, and care givers. Most families with a member suffering from advanced cancer need help to maintain family stability. Social costs are difficult to quantify, particularly in monitary terms. Attempts to estimate these costs established a minimum social cost of cancer, excluding costs associated with death, of $2.5 billion in 1975.
Assault burn injuries in adolescents and adults in South Africa: risk factors and characteristics
Published in International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 2022
Ashley van Niekerk, Rajen Govender, David Kimemia
Regarding the causal agent, chemical burns were more than five times and scalding more than twice as likely to be the cause of a burn assault compared to flame burns. Chemicals are especially portable as weapons and can be used more readily in an assault. These may also be the preferred weapon, if the intention is for revenge (Abdulrasheed et al., 2014) or to mutilate and shame, but not to kill (Peck, 2012). The emphasis in the current study is furthermore of burn assaults to the head and neck, with the consequent facial disfigurement and in some instances blindness which would align to such motives of punishment. The use of chemicals in assaults may however also reflect the limited access to more lethal weapons such as firearms, as in South Africa where there has been increasingly stringent firearm legislation (Mayosi et al., 2009). In such instances the use of chemicals, especially where surprise is a key element, would therefore be sufficiently disabling to enable an attack for economic gain.
Evaluation of facial symmetry after jaw reconstruction surgery
Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2021
Jade Duchscherer, Daniel Aalto, Lindsey Westover
The spectrum of facial asymmetry can be present for many reasons including presence from birth, due to injury or disease, arise during development and of unknown etiology, or as a result of medical examination or treatment (Thiesen et al. 2015). Head and neck cancer and its treatment may result in facial disfigurement (Gruss et al. 1991; Cascone et al. 2018; Huang et al. 2019). Surgical reconstruction based on free flaps is a relatively safe intervention to improve both the cosmesis and function of the orofacial system (Urken et al. 1994; Papadopoulos-Nydam et al. 2017). Furthermore, fat grafting is another widely accepted therapeutic technique for reconstruction that can address the soft tissues (Denadai et al. 2019). A significant component of aesthetics after reconstruction is symmetry of facial features. Facial symmetry is known to be a prominent determinant in assessing attractiveness, with a general agreement that severe facial asymmetries substantially decrease attractiveness of the face (Kaipainen et al. 2016). Thus, in addition to functional benefits, restoration of facial aesthetics, including facial symmetry, after reconstruction remains an important priority for patients.