The repair of the Achilles tendon rupture: comparison of two percutaneous techniques

This study proposes a comparison between two percutaneous techniques of subcutaneous Achilles tendon rupture by evaluating the risk of lesion developing, the morbidity of the surgical technique adopted and the effectiveness of each technique. Sixty patients were operated at Padua Orthopaedic Clinic by using the two different procedures: (1) Ma and Griffith in 30 cases and (2) Tenolig in 30 cases. Risk of rupture developing has been evaluated in relation to sex, age, side, kind of trauma, work and presence of preoperative risk factors. The Morbidity of surgical technique has been evaluated in with respect to surgical time, hospital permanence, immobilization, active nonweight-bearing mobilization, assisted weight bearing until the full one, number of early and late complications before and after hospital discharge. Effectiveness has been evaluated in relation to return time to common life, work and sport; anatomical and functional features have been evaluated using McComis score, rating results as: very good (from 80 to 70), good (from 69 to 60), fair (from 59 to 50) and poor (<50). Tenolig group shows shorter average time from hospital admission and operation, hospital permanence and immobilization (P < 0.05), and it results in an easier and quicker execution and functionally stimulates the tendon healing in a short time. Effectiveness was the same for both techniques because average McComis score was good (P = 0.35), and there was no significant differences in common life returning time (P = 0.12). Tenolig technique seems to be preferable to Ma and Griffith

Assessment of Axial Postural Abnormalities in Parkinsonism: Automatic Picture Analysis Software

BackgroundSoftware-based measurements of axial postural abnormalities in Parkinson's disease (PD) are the gold standard but may be time-consuming and not always feasible in clinical practice. An automatic and reliable software to accurately obtain real-time spine flexion angles according to the recently proposed consensus-based criteria would be a useful tool for both research and clinical practice. ObjectiveWe aimed to develop and validate a new software based on Deep Neural Networks to perform automatic measures of PD axial postural abnormalities. MethodsA total of 76 pictures from 55 PD patients with different degrees of anterior and lateral trunk flexion were used for the development and pilot validation of a new software called AutoPosturePD (APP); postural abnormalities were measured in lateral and posterior view using the freeware NeuroPostureApp (gold standard) and compared with the automatic measurement provided by the APP. Sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of camptocormia and Pisa syndrome were assessed. ResultsWe found an excellent agreement between the new APP and the gold standard for lateral trunk flexion (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] 0.960, IC95% 0.913-0.982, P &lt; 0.001), anterior trunk flexion with thoracic fulcrum (ICC 0.929, IC95% 0.846-0.968, P &lt; 0.001) and anterior trunk flexion with lumbar fulcrum (ICC 0.991, IC95% 0.962-0.997, P &lt; 0.001). Sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 100% for detecting Pisa syndrome, 100% and 95.5% for camptocormia with thoracic fulcrum, 100% and 80.9% for camptocormia with lumbar fulcrum. ConclusionsAutoPosturePD is a valid tool for spine flexion measurement in PD, accurately supporting the diagnosis of Pisa syndrome and camptocormia

Growth rate after limb deformity correction by the Ilizarov method with or without knee joint distraction: Lengthening in 30 children followed for at least 2 years

Background and purpose Growth inhibition and stimulation have both been reported after juvenile limb lengthening. Distraction of a joint usually suspends and unloads the growth plate and may stimulate growth. We investigated the influence of knee joint distraction on the speed of growth after limb lengthening