Regeneration of articular cartilage: Scaffold used in orthopedic surgery. A short handbook of available products for regenerative joints surgery

Introduction: Restoring defects of load-bearing connective tissues such as articular cartilage resulting from traumas, degenerative or age-related diseases remains a significant clinical challenge for clinicians due to the limited inherent repair capacity of articular cartilage. Tissue engineering has emerged as a potential alternative to the traditional surgical techniques, as it can be effectively used to regenerate bone, cartilage and the bone-cartilage interface. Several scaffold strategies have been developed and evaluated for osteochondral defect repair. Materials and methods: The classes of polymers (scaffold-based proteins, scaffold-base polysaccharides and synthetic scaffolds) and Hydrogels have been reviewed trough literature and market search. The study focused on their respective properties and analyzed advantages and disadvantages of each of them. Discussion: Clinical studies demonstrated improved cartilage regeneration thanks to the implantation of biomaterials after bone marrow stimulation. New cartilage can be engineered in vivo by transplanting chondrocytes seeded into a three-dimensional scaffold and this novel scaffold has mechanical properties that can be comparable to native cartilage and could be used to repair large osteochondral joints defects. Anyway, there is still space for improvement regarding clinical outcome and tissue quality

Bone Metastasis from Solid Tumors: Biologic and Clinical State of the Art

Bone metastases are a frequent and debilitating consequence for many tumors, of which breast, lung, prostate, and kidney cancer are the most common. The dialog among cancer cells, bone microenvironment, and immune system regulates bone metastasis formation. Indeed, bone and immune system are strictly linked to each other because bone regulates the hematopoietic stem cells from which all cells of the immune system derive. Many immunoregulatory cytokines influence the fate of bone cells and promote the growth of tumor cells in bone, contributing to sustain the vicious cycle of bone metastasis. Bone is an attractive soil for cancer cells, which can remain dormant for years or directly form bone lesions. The fate of cancer cells after their arrival to bone marrow depends on a complex cross-talk among cancer, bone, and immune cells in the microenvironment. This review provides an overview of the different steps occurring during bone metastatic process, with particular attention to the osteoimmunology field. Furthermore, we will revise the current available clinical approaches for the therapy of bone metastatic patients

Do standards of care and early outcomes of periprosthetic fractures change during the COVID-19 pandemic? A multicentre study

Periprosthetic fractures (PPFs) are a growing matter for orthopaedic surgeons, and patients with PPFs may represent a frail target in the case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether hospital reorganisations during the most severe phase of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affected standards of care and early outcomes of patients treated for PPFs in Northern Italy

Early mortality in hip fracture patients admitted during first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Italy: a multicentre study

Treatment of hip fractures during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed unique challenges for the management of COVID-19-infected patients and the maintenance of standards of care. The primary endpoint of this study is to compare the mortality rate at 1 month after surgery in symptomatic COVID-positive patients with that of asymptomatic patients. A secondary endpoint of the study is to evaluate, in the two groups of patients, mortality at 1 month on the basis of type of fracture and type of surgical treatment