Outcomes of Operatively Treated Acute Knee Dislocations

Knee dislocation is a complex and rare injury often presenting in the context of high velocity trauma. The aim of this study is to establish the subjective outcomes of surgically treated knee dislocations. A total of 20 knees dislocations treated by open repair were reviewed. Their progress and outcomes were assessed by using a modified Lysholm score questionnaire. Data was obtained on patient demographics, details of injury, investigation, treatment, rehabilitation, 24 months objective outcome and subjective outcomes. Six patients had a vascular deficit and six had neurological deficits. The median range of motion was 0°-100°. Patients with an initially lower pre-injury level of function were able to return an activity level comparable to their pre-injury status. 22% of competitive athletes retuned to competitive sports. 38% of patients undertaking heavy activity returned to comparable pre-injury level of activity and 67% of patients undertaking moderate level of activity before injury returned to a comparable level after repair. 68% regularly had problems running, 70% problem squatting, 40% swelling and 42% problem with stairs. Most patients however did not have locking of the knee or problems with knees giving way. Patients pain scores decreased over time to an acceptable level. Despite the severity of the injury, majority of patients achieved a satisfactory outcome, although none of the patients reached the same level of function as before the injury. 80% of the patients were satisfied with their outcome. All dissatisfied patients suffered postoperative complications

Paleozoic origins of cheilostome bryozoans and their parental care inferred by a new genome-skimmed phylogeny

Phylogenetic relationships and the timing of evolutionary events are essential for understanding evolution on longer time scales. Cheilostome bryozoans are a group of ubiquitous, species-rich, marine colonial organisms with an excellent fossil record but lack phylogenetic relationships inferred from molecular data. We present genome-skimmed data for 395 cheilostomes and combine these with 315 published sequences to infer relationships and the timing of key events among c. 500 cheilostome species. We find that named cheilostome genera and species are phylogenetically coherent, rendering fossil or contemporary specimens readily delimited using only skeletal morphology. Our phylogeny shows that parental care in the form of brooding evolved several times independently but was never lost in cheilostomes. Our fossil calibration, robust to varied assumptions, indicates that the cheilostome lineage and parental care therein could have Paleozoic origins, much older than the first known fossil record of cheilostomes in the Late Jurassic

A broadly resolved molecular phylogeny of New Zealand cheilostome bryozoans as a framework for hypotheses of morphological evolution

AbstractLarger molecular phylogenies based on ever more genes are becoming commonplace with the advent of cheaper and more streamlined sequencing and bioinformatics pipelines. However, many groups of inconspicuous but no less evolutionarily or ecologically important marine invertebrates are still neglected in the quest for understanding species- and higher-level phylogenetic relationships. Here, we alleviate this issue by presenting the molecular sequences of 165 cheilostome bryozoan species from New Zealand waters. New Zealand is our geographic region of choice as its cheilostome fauna is taxonomically, functionally and ecologically diverse, and better characterized than many other such faunas in the world. Using this most taxonomically broadly-sampled and statistically-supported cheilostome phylogeny comprising 214 species, when including previously published sequences, we tested several existing systematic hypotheses based solely on morphological observations. We find that lower taxonomic level hypotheses (species and genera) are robust while our inferred trees did not reflect current higher-level systematics (family and above), illustrating a general need for the rethinking of current hypotheses. To illustrate the utility of our new phylogeny, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of frontal shields (i.e., a calcified bodywall layer in ascus-bearing cheilostomes) and asked if its presence has any bearing on the diversification rates of cheilostomes.</jats:p