Pre-clinical validation of a vaginal cream containing copaiba oil (reproductive toxicology study)

The aims of this study was to evaluate the effects of oil-resin of Copaiba (Copaifera duckei Dwyer), aired in vaginal cream on the reproductive performance of female rats (Rattus norvegicus). To determine the components of the C. duckei oleoresin, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (CG-MS) was used, and considering the trans-caryophyllene sesquiterpene as a phytochemical marker in the oleoresin. Due to the extensive use of copaiba oleoresin in the suppository form for gynecological infections, an evaluation was carried out on the effects of copaiba oleoresin (Copaifera duckei Dwyer), delivered in a vaginal cream, on the reproductive performance of female Wistar rats. For this purpose, three groups (n=5-6/group) of female rats were treated as follows: 1--vaginal cream of copaiba oleoresin (28.6 mg/kg), 2--base vaginal cream and 3--control (physiological saline 0.9%), administered intravaginally, for 30 days before pregnancy, and from day zero to day 20 during pregnancy. Laparotomy was performed on the 21st day of pregnancy, followed by the determination of reproductive variables: number of live and dead fetuses, mass of the fetuses and placentas, number of implantations and resorptions, number of corpora lutea, pre- and post-implantation loss, and analyses of the fetuses with regard to external and internal anomalies and/or malformations (skeletal and visceral). The trans-caryophyllene present in the sample is suggested as a phytochemical marker and the results of this study demonstrate an absence of maternal toxicity and foetotoxicity embryofoetotoxicity at the dose administered, corresponding to ten times the recommended dose for use in humans. Accordingly, no significant statistical difference was observed between the treated and control groups, for the variables analyzed. Thus, it is concluded that the vaginal cream containing 2.5% copaiba oleoresin is safe during gestation, in female rats (Rattus norvegicus) of the Wistar strain.

[Occupational accidents and occupational disease: study of the hospital workers' knowledge about health risks of their work]

This study searches to gather the knowledge of the hospitalr health workers in relationship their own health in the development of their activities. The study was accomplished in a general hospital, of medium load, with medicine service occupational functioning. The way gone through is the presentation of the subject in study and the theoretical foundation as a way of basing the analysis of the datas, gathered through the questionnaire, to apprehend the worker's knowledge about the relationship work-health-disease. The result evidenced the workers' generic knowledge concerning the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases.

[Interprofessional and interinstitutional relations of power at a hospital]

The purpose of this article is to make a critical analysis about power relationships, which permeate daily professional and/or institutional actions in the hospital environment. This reflection is based on a concrete situation experienced by a group of nursing professors from a state university in Paraná, which unleashed conflicts concerning interprofessional and interinstitutional power relationships. This study focuses on power relationships in the hospital emphasizing the interrelations that characterize nursing practice. We believe that these relationships can only be understood, reflected upon and rebuilt in the context of daily practice, as new ways of collective action are sought.

[Hospitalized children: mothers' perception of the affective bond between child and family]

This purpose of this research was to verify the perception of the mother who has her child sick and hospitalized, about the importance of her permanence during the hospitalization time for the maintenance of the affective child-family link. Empiric data were collected with mother's of hospitalized children, who were accompanying the hospitalization of their children in a public hospital at the Cascavel city in the West of Paraná, Brazil, through semi-structured interviews. The analysis of these data demonstrated that the mothers recognize the importance of staying with their children in such a stress time like the hospitalization time, however, the external facts that influence their daily life, often do not allow them to stay with their children.