Trattamento della lussazione acromion-claveare

Non esiste probabilmente articolazione per la cui lesione siano state descritte così tante tecniche di riparazione quanto per l'articolazione acromion-claveare: in questa tesi viene trattata in modo approfondito la tecnica di ricostruzione mediante legamento artificiale LARS. I risultati del nostro studio, che ha esaminato 14 pazienti sottoposti a questo intervento nella Clinica Ortopedica dell'Ospedale del Santa Chiara, ci portano a credere che la tecnica di ricostruzione coraco-clavicolare con legamento LARS sia una scelta affidabile in quei rari casi di lussazione acromion-claveare indirizzati alla chirurgia

MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY IN REVERSE SHOULDER ARTHROPLASTY: 100 CASES OF TISSUE SPARING ANTERO SUPERIOR APPROACH

A certain number of patients with rotator cuff deficiency progress to end-stage osteoarthritic disease with concomitant pain and loss of function and independence. In 1987 Grammont et Baulot introduced a novel semiconstrained reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) as a treatment for patients with cuff tear arthropathy. It involved reversing the polarity of ball-and-socket by placing a "ball" component at the glenoid and an articular "socket" at the proximal humerus. The geometric inversion of the implanted joint components has two essential biomechanical consequences. Medialization of the center of rotation optimizes the deltoid lever arm. Increasing the subacromial space by lowering the humerus results in an increase in deltoid strength by restoring deltoid tension which corrects rotator cuff deficiencies. Good clinical outcome is achieved through maximization of the length-tension relationship of the deltoid and remaining cuff musculature, and it may allow patients to achieve a good functional result even in the presence of a severely deficient rotator cuff RSA has advanced the treatment of shoulder disorders, the ideal indications, surgical techniques, implant designs, and rehabilitation protocols continue to be refined. With improvements in modern implant design and instrumentation, surgical techniques for RSA continue to evolve, as do the surgical indications. Reverses shoulder arthroplasty is most commonly performed via a deltopectoral (DP) or anterosuperior (AS) approach, and several modifications of each have been described. This work aims to explain our surgical technique of mini invasive tissue-sparing antero superior approach and to examine the related evidence

Estimation of Late Postmortem Interval: Where Do We Stand? A Literature Review

Estimating time since death can be challenging for forensic experts, and is one of the most challenging activities concerning the forensic world. Various methods have been assessed to calculate the postmortem interval on dead bodies in different stages of decomposition and are currently widely used. Nowadays, the only well-recognized dating technique is carbon-14 radioisotope measurement, whereas other methods have been tested throughout the years involving different disciplines with different and sometimes not univocal results. Today, there is no precise and secure method to precisely determine time since death, and late postmortem interval estimation remains one of the most debated topics in forensic pathology. Many proposed methods have shown promising results, and it is desirable that with further studies some of them might become acknowledged techniques to resolve such a difficult and important challenge. The present review aims at presenting studies about the different techniques that have been tested in order to find a valuable method for estimating time since death for skeletal remains. By providing a comprehensive overview, the purpose of this work is to offer readers new perspectives on postmortem interval estimation and to improve current practice in the management of skeletal remains and decomposed bodies

Lessons learnt from COVID 19: An Italian multicentric epidemiological study of orthopaedic and trauma services

Introduction: The Pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 has put a strain on the most of health systems all over the world. Many hospitals had to re-organize to deal with the emergency, so that the non-core activities have been suspended or cancelled, raising management problems. The aim of this multicentre study is to report the epidemiological orthopaedic and traumatological data between COVID and pre-COVID era and to analyse patients' needs and their management. Methods: We reported and compared traumatological and elective orthopaedic surgeries performed in three of the main hospital centres in Tuscany during COVID (March 2020) and pre-COVID (March 2019) era. We also reported the epidemiological data about the number of orthopaedic first aid visits at the main hub, analysing the main differences. For each centre, we reported the number, diagnosis, co-morbidities, treatment, hospital course, complications and outcomes of confirmed COVID 19 patients. We also indicated what kind of PPE were used by medical staff and patients at any visit. Results: The scheduled surgery drastically decreased in all the centres and the most of procedures were carried out for tumours, infections and implant mobilizations during the COVID time, delaying all the other ones. Trauma activities slightly decreased between the two time points: proximal femur fractures continued to engage our hospitals at the same pre-COVID volumes, while minor traumas drastically decreased. We report a decrease of 70.95% in orthopaedic first aid, with first-aid-visits/hospitalization ratio of 13.8 in the pre-COVID time vs 5.8 in the COVID time. A total of 5 confirmed COVID patients were treated for fractures and 4 of them healed without complications. We report just one case of death among COVID patients. All the medical staff members have worn the PPE and no one have developed COVID symptoms. Conclusions: The COVID-19 raised many important issues, such as the optimal management of patients requiring the treatment of conventional diseases during a pandemic. The flow of patients changes from one area to another during a pandemic and an integrated approach within the same geographical area could be useful to better allocate resources and manage the patients' needs. The preventive measures put in place in our country seem to work, but this first experience with COVID-19 crisis highlighted the chronic problems of our health system and we believe that we have to "learn the lesson" to be better prepared in the future

Grafting of Expanded Mesenchymal Stem Cells without Associated Procedure in a Healed Case of Ulna Pseudarthrosis: A Case Report

The surgical management of pseudoarthrosis is often a challenge. The use of mesenchymal multipotent cells expanded and manipulated in the laboratory is an interesting treatment of pseudoarthrosis, because they can lead to differentiation into osteocytes and thus the formation of bone tissue

Indices of risk assessment of fracture of the proximal humerus

Osteoporotic fractures are now a social problem for incidence and costs. Fractures of the proximal humerus events are frequent and constantly increasing. It is estimated that they are 20% of all osteoporotic fractures. Bone densitometry in most cases underestimates the real humeral bone density. There is little information about osteoporotic changes in the proximal humerus and their association with the cortical thickness of the humeral shaft. The ratio between the thickness of the cortical and the total diameter of the humeral diaphysis is the cortical index. Fracture risk limit value is 0.231. Convinced of the need to quantify in a reproducible way the real local humerus bone density, we performed a comparative evaluation of bone density of the humerus and femur in patients admitted to our clinic for fractures of the humerus and femur. We evaluated 28 women treated surgically for a fragility fracture of the proximal humerus or femur neck in 2010. All cortical index obtained were lower than the limit for fracture risk set at 0.231, so the IC was more predictive of neck medial fractures of the femur than had DEXA and the U.S. The information about the cortical index may provide a simple way of determining the bone quality of the proximal humerus and of facilitating decision-making in the surgical treatment of patients with fractures of the humerus. So we want to emphasize the importance of therapy for osteoporosis even in patients with fractures of the proximal humerus, which often have not critical densitometric values of femur or column, but they are at risk of new fractures

Humeral bone fragility in patients with shoulder prosthesis: a case of humeral periprosthetic refracture

In recent decades there has been an increase in upper limb prosthetic surgery, primarily for the shoulder, for osteoarthritis disease and for traumatic pathology. It is occurring in parallel an increase in periprosthetic fractures of the humerus, although with less impact than other anatomical districts such as the hip. We report a case of humeral periprosthetic refracture in a 66-years-old female patient. The humerus bone quality is worse than in other districts in patient of the same age. The fragility humerus fracture are increasing, affecting relatively younger individuals than those with femoral neck fractures and represent an independent risk factor for the occurrence of subsequent fractures. Actually humeral BMD is underestimated by traditional densitometric evaluation technique

Study of the porcine dermal collagen repair patch in morpho-functional recovery of the rotator cuff after minimum follow-up of 2.5 years

Tendon augmentation grafts have the potential to facilitate the repair of massive or otherwise unrepairable rotator cuff tears. In our clinic, between 2009 and 2013, 25 patients underwent surgery to treat massive symptomatic rotator cuff tears with porcine dermal collagen patch. This study is a clinical and instrumental assessment of 9 patients with the longest follow-up. These patients were evaluated with Constant score, the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Evaluation Form, ultrasound imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and electromyography. The clinical evaluations have shown good outcomes. The magnetic resonance imaging results were comparable with those of the ultrasound scan. In all cases, we found covering of humeral head, centering of the humeral head, maintenance of the tropism of the supraspinatus, no appearance of fatty degeneration, no worse in cases with fatty degeneration. With the electromyographic examination a complete functional recovery was observed with the possibility of performing maximal contraction against resistance in all cases. We believe that porcine dermal collagen is effective as an augmentation graft in the treatment of chronic extensive rotator cuff tears, providing excellent pain relief with an improvement in active ranges of motion and strength

Pseudo-patella baja: a minor yet frequent complication of total knee arthroplasty

Purpose: One of the complications in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is pseudo-patella baja (PPB). PPB is present when there is no shortening of the patellar tendon, but the joint line is elevated. The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of PPB after TKA and its clinical effects. Methods: A case series of 158 patients undergoing TKA surgery between 1999 and 2012 at the 2nd Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Pisa were retrospectively reviewed. Surgeries were performed by three senior surgeons, using the same surgical procedure for the implantation of a cemented posterior stabilized prosthesis. Lateral radiographs at 30° knee flexion were evaluated and the presence of PPB defined as modified Blackburne–Peel Index (mBPI) of < 0.54. All the patients were clinically evaluated using the Knee Society Score (KSS) and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index score (WOMAC). Anterior knee pain was evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS) and range of motion (ROM) was assessed through clinical examination. Results: The cohort group consisted of 158 patients, 109 (69.0%) female and 49 (31.0%) male. Median age at time of surgery was 74 years (range 36–87) and median follow-up was 66 months (range 12–163 months). Bilateral TKA surgery was performed in 50 patients, resulting in a total of 208 implants for investigation. On radiological evaluation, 139 (66.8%) showed no abnormalities (no joint line elevation and no patellar tendon shortening) and 55 (26.4%) presented joint line elevation with absence of patellar tendon shortening (PPB). No significant differences were found between the groups in terms of the KSS, WOMAC score, VAS or ROM. Conclusion: Post TKA PPB is a relatively common complication. Careful preoperative planning, adequate soft tissue release, optimal cutting of bone components, on the femoral side in particular, and the use of thin polyethylene inserts can help to avoid this complication. Level of evidence: IV. © 2017, European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery, Arthroscopy (ESSKA)