Bulletin (Hospital for Joint Diseases (New York, N.Y.))最新文献

Posttraumatic elbow stiffness can impose severe functional limitations on the performance of activities of daily living. Prevention is key to avoiding a motion-limiting condition. Fractures should be anatomically reduced and stabilized with active and active-assisted range of motion exercises instituted as early as possible to minimize the development of stiffness. Established contractures should be treated initially with physical therapy and static-progressive splinting. Patients who have failed a minimum of six months of nonsurgical management and who are motivated to comply with postoperative rehabilitation are candidates for surgical release. There are several effective surgical approaches and techniques available. The choice of surgical approach and technique is dictated by the location of the pathology, condition of the skin, and degree of arthritic changes. A major challenge to care is the management of the young patient with posttraumatic elbow contracture and advanced degenerative changes for which there is currently no reliable long-term surgical treatment.

Glenoid loosening is a common failure mode observed in total shoulder arthroplasty. In an effort to isolate the affect of differing fixation techniques on loosening, an edge displacement test was conducted using two, pear-shaped, UHMWPE glenoid designs: one keel and one peg, each having a glenohumeral radial mismatch of 4.3 mm. The susceptibility of each design to loosening was established by quantifiably comparing the maximum glenoid edge displacement before and after 100,000 cycles of eccentric loading by the humeral head along both the superoinferior (SI) and anteroposterior (AP) glenoid axes. Regardless of the axes tested, the results of this study indicate that no discernable difference in edge displacement (distraction and compression) occurred before or after cyclic, eccentric loading for either the keeled or pegged glenoid designs. Additionally, each keel andpeg glenoid remained firmly fixed after testing, suggesting that either fixation technique provides sufficient resistance to edge displacement.

Thirty-two adult patients with dens fractures (30 type II and 2 type III) were treated from 1983 to 2002 at the authors' institutions. The age of the patients ranged from 23 to 58 years. The postoperative follow-up period ranged from 1 to 10 years. The objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the osteosynthesis after screw fixation and postoperative bracing. In the 32 cases, 19 patients underwent single screw and 13 underwent double screw fixation. Postoperatively, light head halter traction was applied with the patients in bed for 1 to 4 weeks followed by a halo-vest for 8 to 14 weeks. Fractures healed in 9 weeks on average. There were no cases of delayed union. The overall results were excellent in 26 cases (81.3%), good in 5 (15.6%), and fair in 1 (3.1%) patient (who had a type Il fracture). There were no difference in dens union patterns between those receiving one-screw and two-screw fixation, and there were no complications during or after the operative procedure. Postoperatively there were no restriction of motion in the neck and no residual neck pain. Direct osteosynthesis of the fractured dens with screws is an effective procedure for unstable type II and III fracture of the dens. Postoperative external immobilization with a cervical brace seems to be an important contributing factor to the equal fusion rates in both groups of patients.

The surgical techniques for the fixation of pathologic fractures continue to evolve. The present study examines clinical outcomes and complications associated with the use of newer generation interlocked intramedullary nails compared with open reduction and internal fixation with plates and screws for pathologic fractures in long bones. Fifty operative procedures performed on 37 patients by five community orthopaedic surgeons were retrospectively reviewed. The operative procedures were separated into two groups based upon the method of fracture fixation; the groups were compared for differences in hardware or fixation failure. The use of intramedullary devices was associated with a significantly lower number of hardware or fixation failures (p < 0.02). This data, in addition to several additional advantages of indirect reduction and intramedullary fixation of pathologic fractures, supports this method of fracture care over open reduction and internal fixation in appropriate cases.

Purpose: To identify trends in industry sponsorship of orthopaedic trauma research presented at the annual meetings of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association since the establishment of conflict of interest (COI) reporting policies in 1993.

Background: Industry plays a large role in funding orthopaedic basic science and clinical research. The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of industrial support in orthopaedic research as documented in the final programs of the annual meetings of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA), determine the incidence and nature of COI in the papers and posters accepted for OTA presentation, and report any changes in the frequency of reporting since disclosure policies were enacted in 1993.

Methods: This paper analyzes COI for all years since the adoption of the reporting policies 1993-2002. From 1993-1998, presenters of posters and papers presented at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association annual meetings were required to disclose COI greater than dollar 500, the type of monetary distribution was not recorded. From 1999-2002, presenters of posters and papers were required to acknowledge the type of COI: 1. research grant, 2. miscellaneous non-income support, 3. royalties, 4. stock, and 5. consultant fees. All COI categories were recorded for each year Linear regression was used to determine significance of trends in the pooled data.

Results: There was an increase in the percentage of papers accepted and presented at the OTA between 1993 and 2002 with COI. The number of papers reporting COI rose from 7.6% in 1993 to 12.6% in 2002 (p = 0.0129). There was no significant increase in posters with COI over that same time period. No changes were observed in the nature of industrial involvement since the change in reporting enacted in 1999. There were no observed trends in NIH or OTA grant distribution between 1993 and 2002.

Discussion and conclusion: Industry is playing an increasing role in the funding oforthopaedic research. The majority of industrial support is in the form of research grants. The increasing industrial support of scientific research in the public sector is to be applauded as long as it does not lead to the sequestering and suppression of information that may be disadvantageous to the industrial sponsor.

Tibial fixation of soft-tissue grafts is a weak link in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Previous studies have examined varying interference screw lengths, screw types and tunnel sizes as means to improve graft fixation. We hypothesized that increasing interference screw diameter would significantly increase the maximum load to failure of the graft and decrease the graft's initial slippage. Seventy tibialis anterior and tibialis posterior tendons were divided, looped, trimmed, and sutured to simulate 4-strand hamstring grafts. These grafts were then inserted into composite bone blocks having pre-drilled 8 mm holes and fixed with 8 mm, 9 mm, 10 mm, 11 mm, or 12 mm interference screws. Fourteen grafts were tested for each screw size. The graft was first cyclically loaded from 50 N to 250 N at 0.3 Hz for 100 cycles to measure graft slippage. The graft was then tested to failure at 0.5 mm/sec to determine the maximum load to failure and mode of failure. Graft slippage was not affected by screw diameter. Maximum load to failure increased with increasing screw diameter up to 11 mm; 11 mm screw fixation was 20% stronger than 8 mm screw fixation. In this model, no increase in graft fixation was seen in by increasing interference screw diameter beyond 3 mm of the tunnel diameter.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the success rate of meniscal repair achieved in our sports medicine practice, particularly with interest in characterizing the outcomes observed with the newer all-inside repair devices.

Type of study: Retrospective chart review with telephone follow-up.

Methods: 157 patients that had undergone a meniscal repair procedure between 1996 and 2001 were identified. Twenty-four of these patients were lost to follow-up. Thus, the study group consisted of 133 patients providing a follow-up rate of 85%. All patients included had a minimum of two years of follow up. Failure was defined as the need for meniscectomy in the area of the meniscus that was initially repaired. The time interval from injury to surgery was divided into less than six weeks (acute) and greater than six weeks (chronic). The etiology of the meniscal tear was broken down into three categories; sports related trauma, non-sports trauma, and atraumatic. The repair techniques used in these patients included outside-in sutures, inside-out sutures, darts, arrows, meniscal screws, T-fix, FasT-fix, and the RapidLoc.

Results: The failure rate was 36%. No association was found between failure and the length of preoperative symptoms, rim width, etiology, concomitant meniscectomy, chondroplasty or anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. There was a higher rate of failure of tears in the medial versus lateral meniscus (20.3% vs. 44.8%). No statistical comparisons could be made between devices due to small sample sizes.

Conclusions: The all-inside meniscal repair devices have simplified the meniscal repair procedure. This may have lead to a broadening of the indications for repair

Clinical relevance: The newer generation meniscal repair devices, while simplifying the procedure, do not appear to lead to an increased clinical success rate.

A case of a 26-year-old male with symptoms resulting from loose bodies residing in a sublabral recess is presented. Operative intervention using the standard arthroscopic portals in addition to an accessory posterior portal was successful in removing the loose bodies and approximating the edges of the sublabral foramen. The shoulder is a complex region made up of numerous anatomic structures, which if damaged may be responsible for a patient's pathology. Normal anatomic variations also exist, which in certain situations, may contribute to a patient's presentation. One example of a normal anatomic variation is the sublabral foramen, which represents an unattached anterosuperior labrum.