UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The School provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical education research unit and an education consultancy unit. It is internationally renowned and is currently ranked 8th in the world by the QS World University Rankings 2020.UCL has offered education in medicine since 1834. The currently configured and titled medical school was established in 2008 following mergers between UCLH Medical School and the medical school of the Middlesex Hospital (in 1987) and The Royal Free Hospital Medical School (in 1998).The School's clinical teaching is primarily conducted at University College Hospital, The Royal Free Hospital and the Whittington Hospital, with other associated teaching hospitals including the Eastman Dental Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Moorfields Eye Hospital, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and Luton and Dunstable University Hospital.
BACKGROUND/AIMS:To report visual and anatomical outcomes following intravitreal hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) for the treatment of chronic structural hypotony. METHODS:This study is a prospective interventional case series. Eight patients with chronic structural hypotony for more than 3 months, defined by an intraocular pressure (IOP) of <6.5 mm Hg. All patients had evidence of visual potential, clear cornea and a clear visual axis.Patients received multiple intravitreal HPMC injections (70 µL-1400 µL), administered every 2-4 weeks until either pre-morbid axial length was achieved, an IOP of 10-15 mm Hg was sustained for 4 weeks without signs of hypotony, or axial length of the contralateral eye was reached. They were followed up for 12 months after the first intravitreal injection. RESULTS:Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR) improved in 87.5% of eyes, with one eye remaining stable. The initial BCVA range was 0.3-1.7 LogMAR, and the final range was 0.1-1.6 LogMAR. IOP increased in 87.5% of eyes, from an initial range of 1-5 mm Hg to 3-23 mm Hg. Axial length increased in 75% of eyes, with a median increase of 1 mm (range 0.6-2.9 mm).Two adverse events occurred: uveitis flare-ups leading to loss of HPMC clarity in two eyes, managed with topical and intravitreal steroids, and two cases of temporary vision loss post-injection, resolved after paracentesis. CONCLUSION:This is the first case series to use a structured protocol for intravitreal HPMC in chronic hypotony management. The treatment improved vision and restored ocular anatomy, showing promise for managing structural hypotony in eyes with visual potential.
Large language models (LLMs) are used in radiology to simplify reports, translate findings, and support patient-facing communication, yet their clinical value and safety remain uncertain. This narrative review was conducted in accordance with the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles (SANRA) quality criteria and synthesises evidence from 49 studies published between 2020 and 2025, focusing on clinician-mediated use of LLMs across four domains: report simplification, multilingual translation, patient education, and patient attitudes. Across studies, LLMs consistently improved readability by 2-6 grade levels, but only one randomised trial directly assessed patient comprehension. A professional review was required in up to 80% of outputs in controlled settings, compared with <10% in observational studies. Harmful factual errors were uncommon but non-negligible (0-10% depending on task and model). Translation performance was highest for high-resource languages, while semantic drift was more frequent in low-resource languages, necessitating bilingual review. Patients generally accepted AI-assisted communication when clinician oversight was explicit. Current regulatory and professional guidance support supervised, institution-hosted deployment. Evidence supports specific use cases, patient summaries, translation drafts, and educational materials, but does not justify autonomous deployment or direct patient self-use. Key evidence gaps remain in comprehension outcomes, workflow impact, and real-world validation.
Aim To understand whether the risk of complications following paediatric cardiac surgery differs according to a child's ethnicity or the degree of residential deprivation.Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the National Congenital Heart Disease Audit, including children younger than 18 years who underwent cardiac surgery between April 2015 and March 2022 across 10 paediatric cardiac surgical centres in England and Wales. We examined the occurrence of six defined postoperative complications and used previously reported descriptive models to account for case complexity. Multivariable analysis was used to assess the association between complications and individual ethnicity and socioeconomic deprivation.Results There were 23 423 30-day postoperative episodes. Children of Asian ethnicity were more likely to have a functionally univentricular heart or congenital cardiac risk factors, while children of Black ethnicity were more likely to have Down syndrome and prematurity than children of the remaining ethnicities. Children from the most versus the least deprived areas had higher rates of congenital comorbidity, functionally univentricular heart, high illness severity and urgent operations. After adjusting for case complexity, children from high compared with low deprivation areas had greater odds of prolonged pleural effusion (p=0.05), extracorporeal life support (p=0.001) and unplanned reintervention within 30 days (p=0.04).Conclusions Greater area deprivation in England is associated with increased preoperative medical complexity and a higher incidence of certain postoperative complications among children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Further research is needed to explore the relationship between ethnic background and perioperative outcomes in CHD and to develop pathways to improvement based on social factors.
The surgical management of severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) remains a subject of ongoing discussion among spine-deformity surgeons. While there has been a prevailing shift towards posterior-only fusion (PF) techniques, anterior release with posterior fusion (ARPF) may still be valuable for the correction of large or stiff curves. This study compared the clinical and radiological outcomes of PF and ARPF in a high-volume spinal deformity unit. Patients aged 10–18 years with AIS and a major thoracic curve ≥ 70° (Lenke Types 1–4), who underwent PF or ARPF between 2010 and 2019, with ≥ 2 years of follow-up were included. Correction index formed the primary outcome, complemented by several secondary radiological and clinical measures assessed preoperatively, at first-erect radiograph and final follow-up. Eighty-nine patients were included (PF = 51; ARPF = 38). Baseline characteristics were similar except ARPF patients were younger (13.7 vs 1.4.8, p = 0.001) and less skeletally mature (Risser 0–2: 60.5
