Health and Human Services Pain Management Task Force Sends Final Report to Congress

John J. McGraw, MD, FAAOS

State laws severely limiting the prescription of opioid medications have been the source of frustration for many orthopaedic surgeons over the past several years. Although well-intentioned, such regulations often inhibit physicians from providing appropriate treatment for acute pain resulting from surgery and trauma.

OTA Presentations Detail When to Operate on Talus and Femoral Neck Fractures

Terry Stanton

During the AAOS 2019 Annual Meeting, a session at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association Specialty Day included two presentations that offered guidance on timing issues in the management of talus fractures and of femoral neck fractures in younger adults.

Determining Return to Activity Isn’t Easy, but There Is Help

J. Mark Melhorn, MD, FAAOS

Orthopaedic surgeons often are asked by patients, athletic departments, employers, insurance companies, and the Social Security Administration to complete forms that are designed to describe patients’ activity abilities, restrictions, or impairments. The purpose and context of the form depend on who is asking.

Periarticular Injections: Getting the Mix Right for TKA

Terry Stanton

This article concludes a two-part series reporting on opioids from the AAOS 2019 Annual Meeting. Part one appeared in the June issue of AAOS Now. Visit www.aaosnow.org to read more. During the AAOS 2019 Annual Meeting Instructional Course Lecture titled “Minimizing Opioids in Total Joint Arthroplasty,” David F. Dalury, MD, presented an overview of pain control with periarticular injections for total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and discussed “choosing the right cocktail.”

AOSSM Annual Meeting Offers Education Featuring Best Practices in Youth Sports and Injury Prevention

Several sessions presented at the AOSSM Annual Meeting discussed the treatment of high school, college, and young professional athletes. “The emphasis on youth is important because we know if we can prevent an injury from happening or diagnose it at an early stage, the athlete has the best chance to continue in training and competition,” said Matthew T. Provencher, MD, the 2019 meeting program chair.

AOSSM Annual Meeting Content Will Highlight Breakthroughs in Joint Care

Sports medicine physicians and orthopaedic surgeons have teamed up to pioneer significant advances in joint and tendon surgeries over the past 30 years, and several presentations at the AOSSM Annual Meeting showed ongoing innovation. Using arthroscopy to stage a lesion in the chondral area of the knee is more accurate than MRI, according to researchers from the Rothman Institute.

Patients Use Less Opioids When Treated with NSAIDs After Arthroscopic Shoulder Instability Repair

The opioid epidemic claimed more than 700,000 lives between 1999 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, more than 191 million opioid prescriptions were dispensed to American patients in 2017—with the three most common being methadone, oxycodone, and hydrocodone. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 130 people in the United States die daily after overdosing on opioids.

Big Impact Items and Issues in Hip Arthroscopy

Dean K. Matsuda, MD

A lot has happened in the three years since the last AAOS Now update on the rapidly evolving field of hip arthroscopy and hip preservation.