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The article from the Singapore Medical Journal discusses the conservative management of advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a primary care setting. It highlights the importance of shared decision-making, optimizing diabetes and hypertension care, lifestyle changes, medication review, managing complications of advanced CKD, and palliative care. The article emphasizes the need for comprehensive patient-centered care, especially for older patients with multiple comorbidities, and provides guidance on various aspects of CKD management. It also stresses the importance of referral to specialists when necessary and the availability of palliative care services for patients with advanced CKD. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the provision of contraception in primary care, emphasizing the importance of preventing unplanned pregnancies. It categorizes reversible contraceptive methods into short-acting hormonal methods, barrier methods, natural family planning, medium-acting methods, and long-acting reversible contraceptives. The article also highlights the need for primary care physicians to understand available contraceptive options, their efficacy, side effects, and contraindications before prescribing. Additionally, it provides guidance on history taking, physical examination, counseling, skills training, follow-up visits, and when to refer patients to secondary care. [Extracted from the article]

Miss Lim, a 26-year-old business executive, came to your clinic for vaginal discharge of over one week's duration. A month ago, she had been treated with one dose of oral fluconazole for a vaginal yeast infection and had seen symptomatic improvement. On this occasion, she reported the same symptoms of itch and vaginal discharge. This was her third episode in six months. She was sexually active with one stable male partner. She thought the yeast infection had recurred and requested the same treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infantile colic is a common self-limiting condition that causes significant distress to parents and caregivers. There is no clear cause, gold standard remedy or preventative action. The role of the family physician is to rule out sinister causes while providing counselling and reassurance for parents. The mainstay of management is parental support and reassurance while looking out for red flags in the baby such as fever, lethargy, distended abdomen and failure to thrive. This article provides a framework to approaching infantile colic and practical pointers to share with parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure to thrive in a child is defined as 'lack of expected normal physical growth' or 'failure to gain weight'. Diagnosis requires repeated growth measurements over time using local, age-appropriate growth centile charts. Premature babies with appropriate growth velocity and children with 'catch-down' growth, constitutional growth delay or familial short stature show normal growth variants, and usually do not require further evaluation. In Singapore, the most common cause of failure to thrive in children is malnutrition secondary to psychosocial and caregiver factors. 'Picky eating' is common in the local setting and best managed with an authoritative feeding style from caregivers. Other causes are malabsorption and existing congenital or chronic medical conditions. Child neglect or abuse should always be ruled out. Iron deficiency is the most common complication. The family doctor plays a pivotal role in early detection, timely treatment, appropriate referrals and close monitoring of 'catch-up' growth in these children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]