has confirmed the usefulness of glyceryl trinitrate ointment in children with anal fissure. A total of 102 children aged between 2 months and 15 years were randomised to one of four treatments: placebo (vaseline), 10% lidocaine, EMLA (eutectic mixture of 5% prilocaine and 5% lidocaine), and 0.2% glyceryl trinitrate ointment (GTN) each applied locally twice daily. After 10 days complete relief of symptoms was achieved in 0, 4%, 20%, and 45% of the respective groups, and at 8 weeks in 10%, 42%, 76%, and 91%. Complete healing was seen at 10 days in none of the first three groups and in only one (4%) of the GTN group. At 8 weeks the rates of complete healing were 5%, 29%, 64%, and 82%. These authors suggest using GTN ointment for fast relief and either GTN or EMLA until fully healed.

A cross-sectional study of 1532 13–16 year olds in 10 British towns (

) has shown no effect of infant feeding (breast or bottle) on adolescent serum concentrations of total- (TC) and low-density-lipoprotein –cholesterol (LDLC). A systematic review of published studies included in the same article, however, showed that breastfeeding is associated with higher concentrations of TC and LDLC in infancy but lower concentrations in adult life. The reduction of cholesterol concentrations …