Introduction

Hindfoot surgery is assumed to be more painful than midfoot/forefoot procedures with the former often requiring an inpatient stay for pain relief. Poorly controlled pain is associated with adverse patient outcomes and consequently, peripheral nerve blocks (PNB) have become popular for their effective pain control.

Bowel management following joint replacement is often neglected leading lot of patient distress, with the advent of the enhanced orthopedic rehabilitation program, there is a need of a guideline to ensure prompt and quick recovery of bowel habits before discharge. Our aim was to identify the incidence of constipation in joint replacement patients, to evaluate the current practice of bowel management and formulate a protocol for management of constipation to improve the practice. We conducted a prospective study of 50 patients who underwent joint replacement procedures at our institute between September and October 2015. Following initial audit, we formulated a protocol for bowel management, and performed a re-audit by collecting a prospective data of 50 patients. The statistical analysis was done and calculating the mean and standard deviation for continuous variable and Fischer's exact test was used and significance level was set at 0.05. Incidence of constipation was 88% and laxatives were prescribed in 42%. More importantly, there was no correlation between constipation and pre operative fasting (p Value 0.33), post operative fasting (p Value 0.1822), type of surgery (p value 1.00) and type of anaesthesia (p Value 0.27). Following introduction of bowel protocol the laxative prescription increased to 98% (Prophylactic in 81%), consequently the incidence of constipation reduced to 18%. Implementing bowel protocol significantly will improve the patient care and reduce the rate of complications.

Introduction

Achilles tendinosis results from a chronic degenerative process within the tendon. Topaz micro-debridement aims to restore the degenerate micro-architecture within the tendon reducing painful symptoms experienced by patients. Topaz micro-debridement has been used to successfully treat upper limb tendinopathies but its application to tendinopathies of the foot and ankle is relatively new. This study aims to assess the functional outcomes following topaz radiofrequency micro-debridement for Achilles tendinosis.