Aims

We aimed to address the question on whether there is a place for shoulder stabilization surgery in patients who had voluntary posterior instability starting in childhood and adolescence, and later becoming involuntary and uncontrollable.

Aims

Little is known about the effect of haemorrhagic shock and resuscitation on fracture healing. This study used a rabbit model with a femoral osteotomy and fixation to examine this relationship.

There is a high rate of mortality in elderly patients who sustain a fracture of the hip. We aimed to determine the rate of preventable mortality and errors during the management of these patients. A 12 month prospective study was performed on patients aged > 65 years who had sustained a fracture of the hip. This was conducted at a Level 1 Trauma Centre with no orthogeriatric service. A multidisciplinary review of the medical records by four specialists was performed to analyse errors of management and elements of preventable mortality. During 2011, there were 437 patients aged > 65 years admitted with a fracture of the hip (85 years (66 to 99)) and 20 died while in hospital (86.3 years (67 to 96)). A total of 152 errors were identified in the 80 individual reviews of the 20 deaths. A total of 99 errors (65%) were thought to have at least a moderate effect on death; 45 reviews considering death (57%) were thought to have potentially been preventable. Agreement between the panel of reviewers on the preventability of death was fair. A larger-scale assessment of preventable mortality in elderly patients who sustain a fracture of the hip is required. Multidisciplinary review panels could be considered as part of the quality assurance process in the management of these patients.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2014;96-B:1178–84.

We reviewed the records of 107 consecutive patients who had undergone surgery for disruption of the knee extensor mechanism to test whether an association existed between rupture of the quadriceps tendon and the presence of a patellar spur. The available standard pre-operative lateral radiographs were examined to see if a patellar spur was an indicator for rupture of the quadriceps tendon in this group of patients. Of the 107 patients, 12 underwent repair of a ruptured patellar tendon, 59 had an open reduction and internal fixation of a patellar fracture and 36 repair of a ruptured quadriceps tendon. In the 88 available lateral radiographs, patellar spurs were present significantly more commonly (p < 0.0005) in patients operated on for rupture of the quadriceps tendon (79%) than in patients with rupture of the patellar tendon (27%) or fracture of the patella (15%). In patients presenting with failure of the extensor mechanism of the knee in the presence of a patellar spur, rupture of the quadriceps tendon should be considered as a possible diagnosis.

We performed a randomised, prospective trial to evaluate the use of unreamed titanium nails for femoral fractures. Of 48 patients with 50 femoral fractures 45 were followed to union; 23 with an unreamed and 22 with a reamed nail. The study was stopped early because of a high rate of implant failure.

The fractures in the unreamed group were slower to unite (39.4 weeks) than those in the reamed group (28.5 weeks; p = 0.007). The time to union was over nine months in 57% of the unreamed group and in 18% of the reamed group.

In the unreamed group 14 secondary procedures were required in ten patients to enhance healing compared with three in three patients in the reamed group. Six implants (13%) failed, three in each group. Four of these six fractures showed evidence of delayed union.

To achieve quicker union and fewer implant failures we recommend the use of reamed nails of at least 12 mm in diameter for female patients and 13 mm in males.

We studied the effect of 'dynamisation' on tibial fractures in six patients treated by the Dynamic Axial Fixator. In the early stages, peak cyclic movement at two to four weeks averaged 0.75 mm (0.19 to 1.02) on the medial side of the bone and 0.86 mm (0.21 to 1.25) on the lateral side. The amount of movement correlated with the applied load and the fracture stiffness. After unlocking the fixator column at six weeks, progressive closure of the gap averaged 1.3 mm (0.1 to 3.5). Cyclic movement is produced by early weight-bearing with the fixator column locked. Progressive closure occurs after unlocking the column, and is often associated with a reduction in cyclic movements. The effects of dynamisation on movement at the fracture site should be defined separately, in terms of cyclic movement and of progressive closure.

The changes in serum adjusted ionised calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) were prospectively studied in 32 patients with isolated tibial fractures, treated conservatively. We measured serum albumin, adjusted total calcium, phosphate, pH, adjusted ionised calcium and PTH at intervals until the fractures had healed. The mean ionised calcium adjusted for pH fell within 24 hours of injury, and then rose to a peak at between four and six weeks. These changes cannot be explained by changes in serum pH or PTH. The restoration of normal ionised calcium levels after fracture coincided with the period when the callus was being calcified. Analysis of the changes in ionised calcium, phosphate and PTH suggests that PTH levels alter in response to changes in ionised calcium levels. PTH is highest immediately after fracture and lowest, often not recordable, at six weeks. The cause of the changes in the ionised calcium level has yet to be elucidated.

We examined specimens of hydroxyapatite-coated femoral prostheses from four patients who had died within nine months of implantation for fractured neck of femur. Histology showed newly formed immature bone overlying the hydroxyapatite coating with new trabeculae bridging to the endosteal bone layer. In the diaphysis, where there had been contact between the hydroxyapatite and the cortex, there was dense, firmly anchored bone with an haversian architecture. In other places the newly formed bone had a trabecular structure, containing bone marrow tissue with normal cellularity. It appeared that biological osseointegration had taken place.

A method of assessing foot movement suitable for use in clinical practice is presented. The method assesses the component of movement in the horizontal plane which is produced by rotating the calcaneum about the axis of the subtalar joint.

Radiopharmaceuticals have been successfully used to detect occult neoplasms and infective lesions. Bone scans using 99mTc-labelled methylene diphosphonate located osteoid osteomas accurately in a series of 30 symptomatic patients. A portable radiation detector system has been designed to help intra-operative localisation and facilitate complete excision of the lesions with minimal damage to normal tissue. A sodium iodide detector with a fibre-optic link was used at first, but a cadmium telluride system has provided a more durable, reliable and sensitive sterilisable probe.

Thirteen patients with ruptures of the calcaneal tendon diagnosed more than four weeks after injury were reviewed. Eleven patients had operative reconstruction with tendon shortening and the postoperative follow-up ranged from one to seven years. Isometric and isokinetic measurements, as well as the strength of the triceps surae, all compared favourably with the normal contralateral leg. Only one tendon re-ruptured. Eight of the eleven patients were satisfied with the results and the two patients who had refused reconstruction had worse functional results. Late reconstruction of a ruptured calcaneal tendon is thus a worthwhile procedure.

A 13-year-old girl presented with a two-year history of pain in the right thigh and right forearm. Engelmann's disease was diagnosed on the basis of radiological appearances and histological examination of the bone. Her symptoms subsided after biopsy of the bone, but two weeks later she developed severe pain in the left tibia and was unable to walk. Radiological features of Engelmann's disease were found in the left tibia and other long bones although these bones had been radiologically normal one month previously. Treatment with prednisolone gave rapid relief of pain and allowed the patient to become mobile again. Four months later the radiological appearances showed significant improvement. The use of corticosteroids in this disorder is discussed.

Between March 1969 and May 1978, 36 babies sustained birth injuries of the brachial plexus at the National Women's Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. This gives an incidence of 0.87 per 1000 live births. Nearly 80 per cent of these children had made a complete recovery by the age of 13 months, while none of those with significant residual defects has severe sensory or motor deficit of the hand.

Seventy-nine cases of fracture of the femoral shaft treated by cast-brace and early walking have been reviewed. Discrepancy in femoral length was assessed by scanogram. The cases were analysed to relate the incidence of shortening greater than 2 centimetres to the type and site of the fracture, and the time which elapsed from injury until the cast-brace was applied. Such shortening was encountered most frequently when the cast-brace was applied within the first two weeks from injury or after six weeks and in those patients with comminuted fractures of the middle third of the femoral shaft.

1. Ectopic ossification is commonest in, but not confined to, traumatic paraplegia. It occurs also in many other neurological disorders which have in common a gross disturbance of spinal cord reflex activity. It is a true ossification and must be distinguished from calcification.

2. The neurological lesion may lie anywhere from the cerebral cortex to the mixed peripheral nerve. It may involve motor tracts, sensory tracts or a mixture of both.

3. The ossification is localised and self-limiting. It occurs mainly in the lower limbs and is restricted to certain muscles or muscle groups, the nerve supply of which is always below the level of the central neurological lesion.

4. The blood chemistry is usually normal.

5. A true arthropathy is rare except as part of a secondary suppurative arthritis.

6. The resemblance to myositis ossificans progressiva or to ossifying haematoma is only superficial, although the pathological process at cellular level may be the same.

7. The period of onset after paraplegia is variable. The earliest recorded example is in one of our own cases in which ossification occurred nineteen days after injury. Other patients have developed ossification after several years.

8. The condition is commonest in acquired nervous disease rather than in congenital disorders, and so far as we know it has not been described in the myopathies. The presence of muscular spasticity or flaccidity is relevant only in that it indicates a disturbance of reflex activity.

9. Soft-tissue ulceration appears to be frequently associated with ectopic ossification. The type of new bone formation associated with large chronic ulcers is not to be compared with the new bone formation in the muscles of a paraplegic patient in otherwise good general condition.

10. The occurrence of urinary tract infections with calculi and generalised sepsis is not specifically related to the onset of new bone formation.

11. Localised soft-tissue oedema often precedes the formation of new bone. Its appearance is undoubtedly important, but the mechanism of its origin is obscure.

12. It is not yet known what initiates ectopic ossification, what limits its spread and what finally causes it to stop.

13. We have described 100 examples of ectopic ossification in 603 paraplegic patients.

14. Surgery has been required in only eight patients. The only indication for surgery is bony ankylosis of the hip in an unacceptable position.