Aims

To evaluate the effectiveness of an institutionally developed algorithm for evaluation and diagnosis of prosthetic joint injection and to determine the impact of this protocol on overall hospital re-admissions.p

Joint allotransplantation has a place in the treatment of joints destroyed by operation or disease. It is hoped that the results will improve with increasing knowledge of immunological mechanisms and with improvements in methods of internal fixation.

1. Two cases of locking of the metacarpo-phalangeal joint of the index finger are presented.

2. A simple classification of metacarpo-phalangeal joint locking is suggested, and the clinical features of the two main groups—degenerative and spontaneous—are described.

3. A routine approach to the treatment of the condition is suggested.

1. Twenty-two feet injured at the tarso-metatarsal level are reviewed.

2. Experiments with eleven cadaveric feet are reported.

3. The injuries are caused by forced plantar-flexion combined with rotation in most cases. Crushing of the foot alone often does not produce dislocation.

4. A classification is suggested.

5. The results of various treatments in this small series are presented. It is concluded that anatomical reduction is important, achieved if necessary by operation and internal fixation.

1. Five cases of locked metacarpo-phalangeal joint are described.

2. The anatomy of this joint is described and its bearing on the mechanism of locking discussed.

3. A method of treatment is suggested.

Two cases of neuropathic joints in diabetes mellitus are described. The condition, though rare, must be kept in mind in diabetes with neuropathy. With proper control of the diabetes and supportive measures to the joints the prognosis is relatively good.

1. By reducing the viscosity of the synovial fluid within the ankle joints of rabbits and then subjecting these to prolonged exercise, wear and tear of articular cartilage can be consistently produced.

2. This finding is an indirect confirmation of the view that fluid film lubrication is an important factor in the mechanical efficiency of joints.

3. The special properties of synovial fluid and articular cartilage that allow fluid film lubrication to exist within joints that are, in effect, slowly moving, heavily loaded, reciprocating bearings are discussed. They account for the remarkable resistance to wear and tear exhibited by synovial joints under physiological conditions.

1. The dynamics of synovial joints depends upon the geometry of the articular surfaces, which are always curved.

2. There are two types of articular curvature: ovoid (synclastic) and sellar (anticlastic).

3. The sellar type is mechanically more suited to movements in which sliding is combined with medial or lateral rotation (monodal conjunct rotation).

4. The movement of any hinge-joint is accompanied by a monodal conjunct rotation. This carries the moving part along a path that approximates (at least) to a path of minimal wear. The same is true of the paths of habitual effort-movement (ergodes) of other kinds of joint.

5. Evidence for the foregoing statements is drawn from both normal and abnormal joints, and a clinical application is suggested.

1. Two successive movements at a joint, if not in one and the same plane, constitute a diadochal movement.

2. Diadochal movements impose conjunct rotation upon the bone which has been moved. This may be countered by a rotation of opposite sense.

3. All muscles of a given joint are, therefore, rotators in some degree.

4. Upon the basis of these principles diagnostic and therapeutic suggestions are made.

1. All articulating cartilages are fibrocartilages.

2. The articular cartilages of the synovial joints are largely composed of collagen fibres.

3. These fibres form a dense network, the fibres of which run obliquely between the articular surface and the bone.

4. This network is operative when the parts are at rest and in contact under pressure. It takes the tensile component of the resultant shear stress, and is a postural mechanism of the joint.

5. The articular cartilage is most heavily chondrified at its centre, between the juxta-synovial and juxta-osseous parts.

6. The technique for demonstrating the fibrous structure is described.

1. Muscles acting upon any joint can be divided into two principal groups: muscles of displacement or spurt muscles, and muscles of stabilisation or shunt muscles.

2. Muscles which arise far from the joint are spurt muscles; those which arise near it are shunt muscles.

3. The fibrous tendon sheaths are joint-stabiising mechanisms.

4. The lumbrical and interosseous muscles are muscles of stabilisation of the digits.

5. The arrangement of the musculature is such as to ensure a constant pressure across the joint cavity during rest or uniform movement. The necessary centripetal force during movement is supplied mainly by the shunt muscles.

6. Experiments are described to illustrate these observations.

Link arthroplasty is a system of joint replacement in which the joint is left almost intact with no great removal of bone. It is based on a two-piece self-locking hinge slotted into the metacarpal head and phalangeal shaft. The operation is simple and no special instruments are needed. The preliminary follow-up of fifty-four metacarpo-phalangeal joint replacements showed thirty-five good and sixteen fair results.

1. By the use of a device that allows movement of a human finger joint to take place uninfluenced by muscle activity, the coefficient of friction has been determined between living articular surfaces.

2. The force of friction rises as the range of movement is increased, because of the tension then developing in the ligaments and the soft tissues surrounding the joint.

3. Measurements have also been made of the forces of friction within the ankle joint of the dog and within four types of reciprocating bearings (plastic, oil-lubricated, "floating" and hydrostatic).

4. By altering the load borne by the joints and bearings it has been shown that joints resemble in their behaviour those bearings in which a film of fluid is maintained between the fixed and moving surfaces, rather than bearings depending wholly or in part on boundary lubrication.

5. It is suggested that joints normally owe their great freedom of movement to a special type of fluid film lubrication that has been termed "weeping lubrication," supplemented by "floating lubrication," though on occasions boundary conditions may prevail.

Streptomycin and iso-nicotinic acid hydrazide are two powerful drugs lethal to tubercle bacilli, when access to the infected tissues is free. For early disease, before ischaemia and necrosis become established, they are curative: afterwards they are not. In this paper the use of surgery to augment their action has been discussed. The development of such methods may well revolutionise the treatment of skeletal tuberculosis. Therein lies a danger because attempts to cure the patient by exterminating the tubercle bacilli in his lesion may lead to a precarious recovery: treatment directed against the bacilli may greatly facilitate a real cure if constitutional treatment is also applied to make the patient immune. Revolutionary though the change may become, it will not be so great as the revolution which occurred thirty years ago when open-air hospitals were first provided for patients with skeletal tuberculosis. The first patient ever seen on a surgical ward by the author, when he was a student, suffices still as an example. A child with tuberculosis of the cervical spine was admitted from out-patients with multiple discharging sinuses from the neck which was supported in a sodden plaster jacket. "Whoever," said the house surgeon dramatically, "removes that plaster, will kill that child." Most unfortunately his words were true. Many other such patients could, in those days, be seen in the wards of city hospitals. It was largely due to the work of Sir Robert Jones, friend of children, that the value of constitutional treatment became recognised. With the combination of the old knowledge and the development of the new, a new chapter in the treatment of skeletal tuberculosis has opened and rapid restoration of function and permanent cure can now take the place of long and sometimes crippling illness.

We have used an experimental model employing the bent tail of rats to investigate the effects of mechanical forces on bones and joints. Mechanical strain could be applied to the bones and joints of the tail without direct surgical exposure or the application of pins and wires.

The intervertebral disc showed stretched annular lamellae on the convex side, while the annulus fibrosus on the concave side was pinched between the inner corners of the vertebral epiphysis. In young rats with an active growth plate, a transverse fissure appeared at the level of the hypertrophic cell layer or the primary metaphyseal trabecular zone. Metaphyseal and epiphyseal trabeculae on the compressed side were thicker and more dense than those of the distracted part of the vertebra.

In growing animals, morphometric analysis of hemiepiphyseal and hemimetaphyseal areas, and the corresponding trabecular bone density, showed significant differences between the compressed and distracted sides. No differences were observed in adult rats. We found no significant differences in osteoclast number between compressed and distracted sides in either age group. Our results provide quantitative evidence of the working of ‘Wolff’s law’.

The differences in trabecular density are examples of remodelling by osteoclasts and osteoblasts; our finding of no significant difference in osteoclast numbers between the hemiepiphyses in the experimental and control groups suggests that the response of living bone to altered strain is mediated by osteoblasts.

1. Previous reports of calcareous deposits about the metacarpo-phalangeal joints are reviewed, and four further cases are described.

2. The clinical features are described, with reference to the possibility of erroneous diagnosis.

3. Conservative treatment is recommended.

1. Experience in the treatment of tuberculous disease of the spine, hip and knee by combined constitutional, antibiotic and operative measures is described.

2. In patients with tuberculosis of the spine, especially in the thoracic region and when perispinal abscess formation is a prominent feature, the treatment helps to ensure stable ankylosis in the type of case in which it otherwise might not occur.

3. In children with tuberculosis of the hip and in adults and children with tuberculosis of the knee it is usually possible to save the joint and to restore function, provided the joint has not been destroyed before treatment is begun.

One hundred normal fingers were dissected and arthrographs obtained by injection of a chromopaquegelatin mixture, allowing comparison between the radiographic and macroscopic configuration of the synovial capsule. Synovial recesses protruding from each side of every metacarpo-phalangeal joint were found in relation to the collateral ligaments and corresponding exactly with the site of radiological erosions. A group of bursae lying on the superficial aspect of collateral ligaments were also demonstrated. A rudimentary infra-articular meniscus was found. The results of examination of the insertions of the interossei showed differences from traditional descriptions.

The cause of rheumatoid deformity was suggested to be the rheumatoid process arising in the lateral recesses and lateral bursae, weakening the collateral ligaments, which give way in the directions of the deforming forces. These are derived from the long flexor tendons, which were shown to exert an ulnar and volar strain on the metacarpo-phalangeal joint of every finger during grip.

1. A method of finger dissection is described which provides a new approach to the anatomical study of structures in close relation to joints.

2. The volar part of the capsule of the finger joints is described, the attachment to the bones being particularly emphasised together with its form which is like that of a meniscus.

3. A gap between bone and tendon sheath is described.

4. Theoretical and clinical aspects of the local anatomy are discussed.

1. The range of variation in full extension at the interphalangeal and metacarpo-phalangeal joints of the thumbs of 133 male and 100 female Europeans, and of 31 male Indians and 30 male Africans, has been investigated.

2. There is considerable variation between individuals in the maximum extension of both joints of the right and left thumbs in all groups studied.

3. The distribution for each joint in both thumbs in all groups is fairly symmetrical.

4. There is a high correlation between the right and left thumbs for both joints in all groups

5. The mean angle of extension at the right and left metacarpo-phalangeal joints in all groups is similar. Female Europeans, however, show a significantly greater mean angle than male Europeans.

6. The mean interphalangeal angle of extension in male Europeans is significantly greater than that in female Europeans and the mean in the Indian and African groups is significantly greater than in the male European group.

7. There is slight negative correlation between the metacarpo-phalangeal angle and interphalangeal angle in each thumb in the European groups.

8. Many subjects in all groups can increase extension at the metacarpo-phalangeal joint after flexing the carpo-metacarpal joint. Marked hyperextension (over 40°) is more frequent in the left than in the right thumb, in females than in males, and in male Indians than in male Europeans and Africans.

9. Maximum extension at the interphalangeal joints is not related to the presence of a sesamoid bone in the anterior part of the capsule of the joint.

10. The surfaces of the metacarpo-phalangeal joints vary considerably in shape. Those which are flat form about 10 per cent. of the sample and do not show hyperextension.

11. The factors influencing the amount of extension at the interphalangeal joint is the degree of laxity of the anterior capsule. The problem at the metacarpo-phalangeal joint is more complex; both the capsule and the shape of the joint surfaces play important roles.

1. Four joints of three young haemophiliacs who died in traffic accidents have been examined.

2. All patients had received prompt specific treatment for intra-articular and other haemorrhages.

3. Major macroscopic and histological changes were seen in the joints, but these changes were not quite so severe as those described before the days of specific treatment.

4. The possibilities of preventing articular changes and of minimising the effect of blood in the joints are discussed.

1. Two cases of osteochondritis dissecans affecting several joints are described.

2. There is no evidence that injury, congenital anomaly or constitutional disturbance played any part in the etiology of either case.

1. Synovial fluid acts mechanically by forming a convergent lubricant film between the fixed and the moving joint surfaces. This term and the underlying theory are explained.

2. The fatty pads assist lubrication by reducing the "mechanical curvature" in joints with more highly curved surfaces.

3. The intra-articular discs and menisci increase the "mechanical curvature" in joints with surfaces of small curvature.

4. Sesamoid bones exert a "bow-string pressure" upon the bones with which they articulate. This is a corollary from the theory of lubrication.

1. This paper describes the macroscopic and microscopic changes that are seen in posterior intervertebral joints after anterior vertebral fusion.

2. We now have a reasonably clear view of the types of change seen under these circumstances. The type varies from case to case and in different parts of the same specimen. So far we have no clear idea of the sequence or the pattern that leads from the normal to complete fibrosis or osseous ankylosis.

3. Further experimental work is needed in order to build up a clear concept of the sequence of events and of their relative importance. To do this it will be necessary to immobilise joints for longer than before.

We examined 204 children (137 boys and 67 girls) aged 12 years and under with septic arthritis. Their mean age was 31.1 months (1 to 144; SD 41.6). The most common joints affected were the knees and shoulders. Joints in the upper limb were affected more often in younger children and in the lower limb in those who were older. The mean age for an infection was 12 months in the shoulder and 73 months in the hip. The most common organisms cultured were species of Salmonella

Aims

The preoperative diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) remains a challenge due to a lack of biomarkers that are both sensitive and specific. We investigated the performance characteristics of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), interleukin-6 (IL6), and calprotectin of synovial fluid in the diagnosis of PJI.

Aims

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the absolute synovial polymorphonuclear neutrophil cell (PMN) count for the diagnosis or exclusion of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) after total hip (THA) or knee arthroplasty (TKA).

We analysed synovial fluid from 88 hips, 38 with osteoarthritis and 12 with well-functioning and 38 with loose hip prostheses. The levels of TNF-α, IL-1ß (71 hips) and IL-6 (45 hips) were measured using the ELISA technique. Joints with well-functioning or loose prostheses had significantly increased levels of TNF-α compared with those with osteoarthritis. Hips with aseptic loosening also had higher levels of IL-1ß but not of IL-6 compared with those without an implant. The levels of TNF-α and IL-1ß did not differ between hips with stable and loose prostheses. Higher levels of TNF-α were found in hips with bone resorption of type II and type III (Gustilo-Pasternak) compared with those with type-I loosening. The level of cytokines in joint fluid was not influenced by the time in situ of the implants or the age, gender or area of the osteolysis as measured on conventional radiographs. Our findings support the theory that macrophages in the joint capsule increase the production of TNF-α at an early phase probably because of particle load and in the absence of clinical loosening. Since TNF-α has an important role in the osteolytic process, the interfaces should be protected from penetration of joint fluid

1. Arthroplasty of the knee joint should be performed only in carefully selected cases. Criteria for the operation are outlined. 2. In our experience, 70 per cent. of properly selected patients secure good or fair results. An additional 12 per cent., whose anatomical or functional results were classified as poor, preferred the movement which had been gained to ankylosis of the joint. 3. The major functional adaptation of the knee joint takes place during the first five years after arthroplasty. Several patients who had a poor range of movement after one or two years developed an excellent range by the end of five years. 4. Instability, when present, usually became apparent within the first five years. 5. Joints which were still stable at the end of five years usually remained so over a long period of time. Four patients have been traced for twenty to twenty-five years, and three have been traced for over twenty-five years. 6. Since the incidence of ankylosis of the knee joint from gonococcal and pyogenic infections has been reduced by the use of antibiotics, fewer patients are suitable subjects for arthroplasty

Aims

Osteonecrosis (ON) can cause considerable morbidity in young people who undergo treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). The aims of this study were to determine the operations undertaken for ON in this population in the UK, along with the timing of these operations and any sequential procedures that are used in different joints. We also explored the outcomes of those patients treated by core decompression (CD), and compared this with conservative management, in both the pre- or post-collapse stages of ON.

Aims

This study aimed to answer two questions: what are the best diagnostic methods for diagnosing bacterial arthritis of a native joint?; and what are the most commonly used definitions for bacterial arthritis of a native joint?