Clinical outcomes after arthroscopically assisted talus fracture fixation

International audiencePurpose: The purpose of this article is to describe the novel technique of arthroscopic-assisted reduction and internal fixation (ARIF) of talar neck fractures, presenting also the outcomes of this treatment method in a series of four patients. Methods: Between 2011 and 2019, we have treated in our service a number of four patients with talar neck fractures, by the arthroscopic technique. The surgical intervention consists in arthroscopic exploration of tibiotalar and subtalar joints, arthroscopic lavage and debridement, reduction, and osteosynthesis with two cannulated screws under both arthroscopic and fluoroscopic control. Post-operative care consists in non-weightbearing immobilization for 6 weeks, followed by partial loading under the protection of a walking brace for the next six weeks and ROM exercises. The patients were followed up at three months, when a CT scan was performed, and at one year, when X-ray images showed the consolidation of fractures. Results: Normal or slightly reduced ROM of the ankle and hindfoot was noted in three out of four patients, absence of any pain, or disability (3 patients). The AOFAS’ Ankle-Hindfoot scale showed good and excellent results; mean score was 92.75 points (86–98p) at one year after the surgery. Conclusion: Arthroscopic-assisted management of talar fractures offers the advantages of minimally invasive surgery combined with good visualization of the fracture, good control of anatomic reduction, and the possibility to treat associated lesions. Main disadvantages of the method are technical difficulties, requires a prolonged learning curve, and offers limited fixation alternatives

Architecture and performance of the KM3NeT front-end firmware

The KM3NeT infrastructure consists of two deep-sea neutrino telescopes being deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. The telescopes will detect extraterrestrial and atmospheric neutrinos by means of the incident photons induced by the passage of relativistic charged particles through the seawater as a consequence of a neutrino interaction. The telescopes are configured in a three-dimensional grid of digital optical modules, each hosting 31 photomultipliers. The photomultiplier signals produced by the incident Cherenkov photons are converted into digital information consisting of the integrated pulse duration and the time at which it surpasses a chosen threshold. The digitization is done by means of time to digital converters (TDCs) embedded in the field programmable gate array of the central logic board. Subsequently, a state machine formats the acquired data for its transmission to shore. We present the architecture and performance of the front-end firmware consisting of the TDCs and the state machine