Get the most from the 2011 AAOS Annual Meeting

Jennie McKee

Annual Meeting Chair previews highlights Anyone who has attended an AAOS Annual Meeting expects exceptional educational programming, and the volunteers working on the 2011 Annual Meeting in San Diego promise a wealth of innovative and interactive educational opportunities. Chad Price, MD More on Tuesday “I’m very excited about this year’s meeting,” said Dr. Price, who also served as the 2010 Annual Meeting committee chair.

Treating intertrochanteric hip fractures: Nails or plates?

Maureen Leahy

Study reveals no significant differences in outcome between IM nails and plate fixation in Medicare population Intramedullary (IM) nails are becoming increasingly more popular than plate fixation for treatment of intertrochanteric hip fractures. Despite surgeon preference, however, study data presented at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association annual meeting suggest that in older patients, improvement in outcomes for IM nail fixation is limited compared with plate fixation.

Second Look—Clinical News and Views

If you missed these Headline News Now items the first time around, AAOS Now gives you a second chance to review them. Headline News Now—the AAOS thrice-weekly, online update of news of interest to orthopaedic surgeons—brings you the latest on clinical, socioeconomic, and political issues, as well as important announcements from AAOS.

Coming soon — OKU 10

Tricia Arnold

Newest version provides comprehensive, up-to-date review of orthopaedic knowledge The Orthopaedic Knowledge Update (OKU) series has long been recognized as providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date orthopaedic knowledge available. Now, OKU 10 reviews and condenses the most relevant findings from every major mainstream and specialty orthopaedic journal from the past 3 years into a single volume of orthopaedic knowledge.

What’s your Diagnosis?

In November, Valerae O. Lewis, MD, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, provided the following information and images: “The patient is a 14-year-old male who was seen for pain and swelling in the left knee. Plain film radiograph (A) revealed eccentric radiolucency with an osteolytic lesion of the distal lateral femur. A bone scan did not reveal any indication of femoral lesion.

Meetings and Course Listings

Listed below are upcoming continuing medical education (CME) courses and orthopaedic meetings (February through May 2011). 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 at www.aaos.org/courses For more information about other CME courses or orthopaedic meetings listed, contact the source provided.

Reducing the risk of recurrent dislocation

Jennie McKee

Simple liner exchange is often insufficient to prevent further dislocations Dislocation after total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a relatively common complication, noted James J. Purtill, MD, of the Rothman Institute of Orthopaedics at Thomas Jefferson University. “Most dislocations are single episodes that respond well to closed reduction and do not recur,” he said, “but some patients do have recurrent dislocations and require surgical treatment.”

Longer use of COX-2 inhibitors may improve recovery after TKA

Jennie McKee

Award-winning study supports multimodal pain management after total knee arthroplasty COX-2 inhibitors are known to decrease narcotic usage and improve range of motion when administered before total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and throughout hospitalization following surgery, noted William C. Schroer, MD, of the St. Louis Joint Replacement Institute. His study on multimodal pain management received the Lawrence D.

Quantifying the risks of THA

Jennie McKee

Study identifies individual risk factors linked to infection and mortality Although total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a highly successful surgical procedure that restores mobility in many patients and leads to a better quality of life, a small number of THA patients experience complications, such as life-threatening periprosthetic joint infections (PJI), or die within 90 days of surgery.

Pain a factor in forearm disability

Pain and worrying about pain may account for much of the long-term disability seen in patients who have sustained forearm fractures, according to a Dutch study presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand by Arjan G.J. Bot of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. The researchers evaluated 71 patients an average of 21 years after injury.

Study tracks factors for CTS complications in elderly

Elderly patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) who have pain and demonstrate severe conduction velocity readings before surgery are at higher risk of incurring painful reinnervation paresthesias postoperatively. These were the results of a study presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand by Michael Y. Papaloïzos, MD, of the Center for Hand Surgery and Therapy in Geneva, Switzerland.

Do outcomes justify carpal tunnel surgery?

Evidence exists that patients who undergo surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome are likely to fare better than those who do not. But knowledge about the disease process over the long term is relatively scarce, and questions remain about the lasting benefits of surgical and nonsurgical treatments. University of Maryland School of Medicine Assistant Professor Raymond A.

Study finds PRC is a durable treatment option

Proximal row carpectomy (PRC) is a common treatment for degenerative radiocarpal arthritis and Kienbock’s disease, but questions exist regarding its durability over time. When Jonathan L.

Surgical treatment of scapula fractures yields excellent results

Maureen Leahy

Study suggests ORIF yields predictably good functional outcomes Fractures of the scapular body and neck are traditionally treated nonsurgically with good results. A subset of these fractures, however, respond poorly to nonsurgical treatment, suggesting that some patients may benefit from open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF).