Frailty as a predictor of hospital length of stay after elective total joint replacements in elderly patients

Abstract Background Total joint replacement procedures are increasing in number because of population aging and osteoarthritis development. Defined as a lack of physiological reserves and the inability to adequately respond to external stressors, frailty may be more common than expected in older patients with degenerative arthritis awaiting total joint replacements. The aim of the present study was to assess associations between frailty and adverse outcomes, frailty prevalence among elderly patients awaiting elective TJR, and agreement between 2 frailty screening instruments. Methods We undertook a prospective, observational, pilot study in our institution. We enrolled patients 65 years or older who were awaiting elective knee or hip replacement surgery and evaluated them in our preoperative clinic with planned postoperative hospital length of stay greater than 24 h. Patients were asked to grade their perceived well-being on the Clinical Frailty Scale and to answer questions on the FRAIL Scale. Results The Clinical Frailty Scale classified 40 patients (45.9%) as robust, 43 patients (49.4%) as prefrail and 4 patients (4.5%) as frail, while the FRAIL Scale categorized 12 patients (13.7%) as robust, 54 patients (62.0%) as prefrail, and 20 patients (22.9%) as frail. Robustness, ascertained on the Clinical Frailty Scale was, while the FRAIL Scale was not, significantly associated with shorter hospital length of stay and fewer discharges to the rehabilitation center. Both scales showed moderate mutual agreement. Conclusion Screening for frailty identified between 5% and 10% of patients at risk of adverse outcomes. The Clinical Frailty Scale was, while the FRAIL scale was not, significantly associated with hospital length of stay and discharge to rehabilitation center in our cohort of total joint replacement patients

Influence of plasma process on III-V/Ge multijunction solar cell via etching

International audienceIn this paper, the impact of the plasma process for III-V/Ge heterostructure etching on both the morphology and the photovoltaic performance is investigated for the fabrication of multijunction solar cells with a through cell via contact architecture. Three different plasma chemistries (BCl3/Cl2 , SiCl4/Cl2 , and SiCl4/H2/Cl2) have been studied in order to obtain anisotropic etching through the multijunction heterostructure without inducing photovoltaic performance loss. SiCl4-based plasma chemistries have been found more suitable to achieve deep via hole etching (∼ 30 µm) without lateral etching. The study suggests that SiClx passivation is more efficient to protect the sidewalls compared to BClx. The addition of H2 in SiCl4/Cl2 mixture appears to reinforce the sidewall passivation and thus to limit the lateral etching. III-V/Ge triple junction solar cells with standard grid line and busbar front and back contact have been fabricated on which shallow via-holes have been etched in order to assess the associated photovoltaic performance loss to each plasma etching process. Despite the fact that similar hole sidewall profiles are obtained, the electrical performances are plasma chemistry dependant. This study demonstrates that the SiCl4/H2/Cl2 process presents the lowest losses with almost no induced open-circuit voltage degradation, which makes it promising for the through cell via contact architecture recently proposed for concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) solar cells

Séries Kompakt

Mayrand and Gilbert circumscribe the characteristics of serial works of reduced format. Texts by the 15 participating Montreal artists and reproduction of a text by Gascon accompanying the "Teknologia" book-object (Editions Graff, 1989). Brief biographical notes