This study aimed to determine if the adoption of collagenase treatment is economically viable.

Xiapex collagenase was trialled at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust in 50 patients suitable for fasciectomy, with a palpable cord and up to two affected joints. Retrospective data for contracture angle pre-injection, immediately post-manipulation and at an average 6 weeks (range 2–17) clinic follow up was collected from medical notes. At follow up the post-procedure number of days required for return to activities of daily living (ADLs) and/or work were recorded, along with overall patient satisfaction rating.

Complete data was obtained for 43 patients of average age 67 (range 45–82). At follow up 88% had ≤ 20° residual contracture. Average days return to full ADLs was 9 and work was 11. Overall satisfaction was 8.6 out of 10. Xiapex patients required an average 1 hand physiotherapy appointment post-manipulation compared to 6 for fasciectomy, saving £172.20. Total cost for one treatment course, excluding physiotherapy, was £1166 for Xiapex compared to £2801 for palmar fasciectomy and £5352 for digital fasciectomy.

The level of contracture after one Xiapex treatment course permitted return of hand function in the majority of patients whose overall treatment course required less financial and hospital resources.

Introduction

Midcarpal instability is an uncommon but troublesome problem. Patients have loss of dynamic control of the wrist in pronation and ulnar deviation due to laxity of the volar wrist ligaments that is often congenital or due to minor trauma. For those in whom conservative measures fail, open ligament reconstruction or fusions have been described.

Background and Purpose: The majority of non-specific low back pain is presumed to be mechanical in origin. Many interventions, including manipulation, mobilisation, core strengthening and rigid/motion preserving surgery rely on the premise that intervertebral motion is related to pain in some patients, however, there is no reliable in vivo experimental evidence for this. We compared continuous intervertebral motion from quantitative digital fluoroscopic sequences in asymptomatic controls and patients with chronic non-specific low back pain to investigate associations between pain and intervertebral motion.

Methods: Thirty asymptomatic volunteers and 21 patients with chronic non-specific low back pain underwent passive, controlled, recumbent lateral bending motion during video-fluoroscopic screening. These provided 90 and 44 intervertebral levels from L2-L5 respectively for analysis. Vertebrae were registered digitally and automatically tracked throughout the motion. Inter-vertebral rotation phenotypes for each left-right sequence were obtained and analysed for stiffness (inter-vertebral motion of less than 3o), lax appearance and paradoxical motion. A similar population underwent sEMG studies to determine if muscle activity was present during controlled passive recumbent motion. Associations between pain and stiffness, lax appearance and paradoxical motion were calculated from chi-squared distributions. A subset of patients also had MR scans to assess disc degeneration.

Conclusion: Stiffness was observed significantly more frequently in patients with pain, as was paradoxical motion and lax appearance. sEMG activity was very small throughout motion in both groups. MR degeneration was not associated with stiffness in patients. Results must, however, be regarded as preliminary as greater normative referencing, group matching, more extensive kinematic analysis, flexion-extension, weight-bearing, and clinical outcomes studies are needed.