The top 10 in 2010

S. Terry Canale, MD

From Haiti to PRP, AAOS Now was there The year 2010 was huge for orthopaedics. It started with a bang—the massive earthquake in Haiti that made heroes out of ordinary orthopaedic surgeons.

Poor results with pyrocarbon implants

Pyrolytic carbon arthroplasty (PCA) has a high incidence of complications, poor outcomes, and variable patient satisfaction at long-term follow-up, according to Thomas M. Sweets, MD, and should not be recommended for treatment of osteoarthritis of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint. The results of a retrospective review conducted by Dr. Sweets and fellow researcher, Peter J.

MRI can yield false positives for scaphoid

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is often advocated as a way to evaluate patients with suspected scaphoid fractures. But according to the results of a study presented by Andele D. de Zwart, MS, a medical student at Medical Centre Haaglanden, The Hague, Netherlands, MRI should not be used as a reference standard because it is not 100 percent specific for diagnosing this injury and can yield false positives in healthy volunteers. In their prospective study, Mr.

Lower limb amputees fare better than limb-salvage patients in military population

Maureen Leahy

METALS study assessed functional outcomes, disability Military personnel who sustain major lower limb trauma and are treated with amputation appear to have better functional outcomes than those who are treated with limb salvage, according to Military Extremity Trauma Amputation/Limb Salvage (METALS) study data presented at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association 2010 annual meeting.

Meetings and Course Listings

Listed below are upcoming continuing medical education (CME) courses and orthopaedic meetings (January through April). For more information about AAOS-sponsored courses, contact the AAOS customer service department at (800) 626-6726 or visit the CME course section of the AAOS Web site. For more information about other CME courses or orthopaedic meetings listed, contact the source provided.

What progress in patient safety?

Recently, AAOS Now editorial board member Howard R. Epps, MD, conducted a roundtable discussion with three leaders in the orthopaedic patient safety movement: James H. Herndon, MD; Norman A. Johanson, MD; and Claude Martin Jr., MD. Their wide-ranging discussion addressed the ongoing issue of wrong-site surgery, the impact on patient safety of changes in resident work weeks, and a recent shift in the approach to reducing errors. Dr.

Introducing the AAOS OrthoPortal

Maureen Leahy

One-stop Web portal provides easy access to online orthopaedic information Finding quality orthopaedic information and education on the Web just got easier. Designed for orthopaedic professionals and the public, the newly launched AAOS Orthoportal is a central repository for the Academy’s substantial online education and publishing content.

Not your standard hip fracture

Maureen Leahy

Bisphosphonate-associated fractures of the proximal femur require greater treatment vigilance Proximal femur fractures in patients with a history of bisphosphonate therapy are difficult to treat and heal, according to Jaimo Ahn, MD, PhD. As a result, these fractures require vigilance, including careful preoperative planning, follow-up, and patient counseling.

SPORT finds indications are critical in disk herniation treatment

Mary Ann Porucznik

Treatment effect varies significantly with individual factors The Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT) had strict inclusion criteria—and that’s one of the reasons that patients improved more with surgery compared with medical-interventional treatment, according to research presented at the 2010 North American Spine Society annual meeting.

ACDF results do not match perception

“If you ask most spine surgeons about the clinical results of a one-level anterior cervical fusion, typically they would answer that it’s a 95 percent operation—95 percent of patients have excellent results, and fusion rates are 95 percent or better,” Kenneth A. Pettine, MD, told members of the North American Spine Society. Dr. Pettine himself believed those statistics—until he did a meta-analysis of the published results. “The perception is that this is a great operation,” Dr. Pettine said.

New model helps researchers find treatments

Mary Ann Porucznik

Rats may hold answer to human dilemma In approximately 10 percent of the nearly 1.4 million new cases of cancer diagnosed each year, the cancer will metastasize to the spine, reported Camilo A. Molina, BA. Although treatments have improved, much remains to be done, in particular to extend the lives of those patients with breast cancer that has metastasized to the spine.

How do we treat wrist fractures in the elderly?

Treatment Received by Patient Age Group (PDF) Distal radius fracture (DRF) predominantly affects the elderly population, with some 80,000 fractures sustained per year, costing the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $632 million. These fractures have traditionally been treated with casting, a conservative and relatively inexpensive treatment.

More complications with single-incision repair

Patients treated with double-incision repair using transosseous drill holes for acute distal biceps rupture may see fewer complications than those treated with single-incision repair using suture anchors, according to the results of a prospective, randomized clinical trial presented by Ruby Grewal, MD, MSc, FRCSC, at the 2010 ASSH annual meeting. The researchers randomized 90 male patients to receive either single-incision repair (n = 48) or double-incision repair (n = 42).