We acknowledge with thanks receipt of: Acta Chirurgica Scandinavica, and Supplements Acta Orthopaedica Italica Acta Ortopedica-Traumatologica Iberica Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Archives of Surgery Archivio dei Centri Traumatologici Ortopedici dell'Istituto Nazionale lnfortuni Biological Abstracts Boletin de la Sociedad de Cirugia del Uruguay British Journal of Surgery British Medical Bulletin Canadian Journal of Surgery Indian Journal of Surgery Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry Journal of the American Medical Association Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Lancet Ortopedia e Traumatologia dell'Apparato Motore Radiology Revista de Ortopedia y Traumatologia Revue de Chirurgie Orthopédique Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics Zeitschrift für Orthopädie und ihre Grenzgebiete
1. A total of 564 metal components from 109 patients have been examined. 2. Corrosion was detected on 228 components. 3. Most implants were removed for reasons other than corrosion. 4. In at least twelve cases corrosion was the reason for removal of the implant. 5. No corrosion of cobalt-chromium-molybdenum implants has been detected by the methods described in this paper. 6. Corrosion of ferrous alloy implants occurs in the human body. 7. The most common site for corrosion is the junction between components of implants. 8. The most corrosion-resistant type of ferrous alloy for implant uses is 18/8/Mo steel, which falls within specification En58.J of the British Standards Institute, and specification 316/317 of the American Iron and Steel Institute. 9. About 13 per cent of components removed (and by no means only when something was amiss) showed "face" corrosion when all the components of the implant were made of 18/8/Mo steel. 10. Four per cent of 18/8/Mo components of implants showed corrosion at sites other than the interface between components. 11. On the basis of corrosion resistance it is preferable to use cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys for implants that are to be left in the body for an indefinite period. 12. The corrosion resistance of the high alloy steels examined (18/8, 18/8/Ti, 18/8/Mo) does not appear to be related to hardness. 13. The marking of components, either by punching or by electrolytic methods, has not predisposed to corrosion. 14. All hollow 18/8/Mo implants should have a clean and metallurgically satisfactory internal surface. 15. The figures in this report do not permit a full statistical survey of corrosion in surgical implants because it has not been possible to examine a satisfactorily random sample. Many patients cannot be followed up and others die with the implant still in the body.
1. Neuroblastoma is a disease that may concern the orthopaedic surgeon closely. 2. Six such cases are reported. 3. Early diagnosis may be difficult, but can be achieved if the condition is suspected and an adequate investigation is carried out on suspicion alone. 4. The prognosis in these patients is still poor, but might be improved by a vigorous combination of surgery, irradiation and chemotherapy. The recent advance in treatment with vitamin B 12 may improve the prognosis substantially.
Streptomycin and the newer antibiotics have already belied the pessimistic agnosticism of 1947. In certain instances, notably in disease of the knee and hip and in some cases with draining sinuses, it appears that they are sufficient to produce a quiescence which may be a cure. For the rest it remains to map out in detail what has in part been explored. In particular it is essential to confirm how far antibiotics enable surgeons to treat tuberculosis upon the basic principles applicable to other infections of bone without fear of secondary infection: where there is diseased bone, to remove it: where there is pus, to relieve the tension and evacuate it. The surgeon fears not so much the infection itself as the inability of the tuberculous soil ordinarily to deal with secondary infection. With the control of the diseased soil the risk should be no greater than that of any other surgery of bone. The early case and the advanced case; age and site of disease; these and other variables must subdivide basic method. What is the best application of the new "combined operation" to a child of three with thoracic Pott's disease and a globular abscess? What is the wisest plan for a man of forty with old disease in his lumbar vertebrae and discharging sinuses? We begin to see what we could do. At the present the question still remains: What should we do?
