Metal-on-metal hip resurfacing

The management of an arthritic hip in young active Patients represents a challenge to the treating orthopaedic surgeon. Results of the conventional hip arthroplasty in male patients under 55 have bee shown to approach 70% survivorship at 10 years,(1) Hip resurfacing has many theoretical advantages including bone preservation, reduced risk of dislocation and increased range of movement that can benefit this particular group of patients. The results of early hip resurfacing prototypes did not meet expectations and failures were seen early on as a result of cup loosening and femoral collapse, Recently, hip resurfacing has been reintroduced with improved design, engineering and metallurgy. The early clinical results of the new Metal-on-Metal (MoM) resurfacing prostheses are encouraging, In its new design with hard MoM bearing surfaces, hip resurfacing can provide a valuable alternative in the armamentarium of the hip surgeon. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Hyaluronidase (Hyalase): a useful addition in haematoma block?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether hyaluronidase (Hyalase) is a useful and justified addition to haematoma block for pain relief. METHODS: The study was a randomised double blind trial of 33 consecutive patients attending the accident and emergency department for manipulation of distal radius fracture under haematoma block. Control patients received 1% lignocaine; the treatment group received 1% lignocaine plus 1500 IU hyaluronidase. Manipulation occurred 10 minutes after instituting the block. RESULTS: 16 patients received hyaluronidase, 17 received lignocaine only. One patient with unsuccessful manipulation was excluded. There was no significant difference between the two groups for any of three methods of pain assessment (P > 0.05, Mann Whitney). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of hyaluronidase does not increase the efficacy of the haematoma block when 10 minutes are allowed to elapse before manipulation, and the increased cost of adding (and risk of allergy) is not justified by any theoretical increased speed of analgesia

Thermometric chains for ITER superconductive magnets

International audienc

Design, Test, and Validation of Thermometric Chains for ITER Magnets

International audienc

Characterization of low temperature high voltage axial insulator breaks for the ITER cryogenic supply line

Cable-in-conduit conductors of the ITER magnet system are directly cooled by supercritical helium. Insulation breaks are required in the liquid helium feed pipes to isolate the high voltage system of the magnet windings from the electrically grounded helium coolant supply line. They are submitted to high voltages and significant internal helium pressure and will experience mechanical forces resulting from differential thermal contraction and electro-mechanical loads. Insulation breaks consist essentially of stainless steel tubes overwrapped by an outer glass – fiber reinforced composite and bonded to an inner composite tube at each end of the stainless steel fittings. For some types of insulator breaks Glass – Kapton – Glass insulation layers are interleaved in the outer composite. Following an extensive mechanical testing campaign at cryogenic temperature combined with leak tightness tests, the present paper investigates through non-destructive and destructive techniques the physical and microstructural characteristics of the low temperature high voltage insulation breaks and of their individual components, thus allowing to correlate the structure and properties of the constituents to their overall performance. For all the tests performed, consistent and reproducible results were obtained within the range of the strict acceptance criteria defined for safe operation of the insulation breaks