Patient satisfaction after total knee replacement—still a challenge

During a validation process of the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register (SKAR), living registered patients were sent a questionnaire to ask if they had been reoperated on. This gave an opportunity to pose a simple four-point question with respect to patient satisfaction which 95% of patients answered. We analyzed the answers of patients operated on between 1981 and 1995 and found that only 8% of the patients were dissatisfied regarding their knee arthroplasty 2–17 years postoperatively. The satisfaction rate was constant, regardless of when the operation had been performed during the 15-year period. The proportion of satisfied patients was affected by the preoperative diagnosis, patients operated on for a long-standing disease more often being satisfied than those with a short disease-duration. There was no difference in proportions of satisfied patients, whether they had primarily been operated on with a total knee arthroplasty (TKA) or a medial unicompartmental arthroplasty (UKA). For TKAs performed with primary patellar resurfacing, there was a higher ratio of satisfied patients than for TKAs not resurfaced, but this increased ratio diminished with time passed since the primary operation. Unrevised knees had a higher proportion of satisfied patients than knees that had been subject to revision, and among patients revised for medial UKA, the proportion of satisfied patients was higher than among patients revised for TKA. We conclude that satisfaction after knee arthroplasty is stable and long-lasting in unrevised cases and that even after revision most patients are satisfied

Heupfracturen zo snel mogelijk opereren

A recent retrospective study in the Netherlands found no significant association between delayed hip fracture surgery and the occurrence of complications. This argues against the use of the Dutch hospital quality indicator measuring the percentage of patients with hip fracture operated within 24 to 48 hours. However, much larger international prospective studies have shown that delaying surgery results in prolonged duration of pain and hospitalisation and increased rate of complications. There is no evidence that delaying surgery is beneficial for the patient. Therefore, the current Dutch hospital quality indicator for timely initiation of treatment for hip fractures should remain unchanged in the interest of this fragile patient group

Wat is er bekend over de werkzaamheid van 'Sonocur Plus'?

Letter by Dalhuisen with a response from Verhaa

Prognose van de totaleheupprothese

The prognosis of total hip arthroplasty is excellent and as many publications show, the survival of a good type of implant is well above 90 per cent at the 10-year follow-up. The results of the average orthopaedic surgeon may not match those obtained by the experts who have published these results. Therefore, in 1979 a prospective multicentre study was started in Sweden to evaluate the outcome of total hip arthroplasty. This National Hip Register has shown that the outcome is related to type of prosthesis, patient selection and operative technique. The results from one orthopaedic department to another differed considerably. The feedback from the Register resulted in improvements of the overall outcome and decrease of the differences between the orthopaedic departments in Sweden A Dutch National Implant Register is needed

Failure load of patellar tendon grafts at the femoral side: 10- versus 20-mm-bone blocks

The aim of the study was to investigate whether use of short bone blocks is safe in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Our hypothesis was that the smaller 10-mm-length bone blocks will fail at lower loads than 20-mm-bone blocks. Ten paired human cadaver knees were randomly assigned to the 10- or 20-mm group (group 1 and 2) and underwent bone-patellar tendon-bone femoral fixation with interference screw. Tensile tests were performed using a tensile testing machine (Instron). Stiffness, failure load and failure mode were recorded. Median stiffness was 72 N/mm (16-103) for 10-mm-bone blocks and 91 N/mm (40-130) for 20-mm-bone blocks. Median failure loads were 402 N (87-546) for 10-mm-long bone block and 456 N (163-636) for 20-mm-bone blocks. There was no statistically significant difference between groups (P = 0.35). All bone-patellar tendon-bone grafts were pulled out of the femoral tunnel with interference screw, due to slippage. We concluded that a 10-mm-long bone block was not significantly weaker than a 20-mm-long bone block. Failure loads of a 10-mm-bone block exceeded loading values at passive and active extension of the knee under normal conditions. Ten millimetre bone blocks offered sufficient fixation strength in ACL reconstruction

Growth factor expression in cartilage wound healing: temporal and spatial immunolocalization in a rabbit auricular cartilage wound model

AbstractObjective The ability of cartilage to regenerate following injury is limited, potentially leading to osteoarthritis. Integrative cartilage repair, necessary for durable restoration of cartilage lesions, can be regarded as a wound healing process. Little is known about the effects of growth factors regulating acute cartilage wound healingin vivo . In this study the temporal expression patterns of growth factors and proteoglycan content in cartilage wound edges in vivo were studied.Design Cartilage wounds were created in rabbit ear cartilage using a 6mm biopsy punch. Specimens were subsequently harvested 1, 3, 7, 14 and 28 days after surgery. Paraffin sections were thionin stained to visualize proteoglycan loss and replacement. Immunohistochemical staining of TGFβ1, TGFβ3, IGF-1, IGF-II and FGF-2 was used to define growth factor expression at the cartilage wound sites.Results Almost no effect of cartilage wounding was observed one day after surgery. A decrease of proteoglycan content, with a maximal loss at day 7, and a subsequent restoration was observed at the wound edges. Growth factor expression increased simultaneously. Maximal immunostaining for IGF1, IGFII, FGF2 and TGF-beta3 was observed at day 7, followed by a gradual decrease. Increased expression of TGFβ1 lasted from day 3 until day 14.Conclusion We have demonstrated the ability of chondrocytes to increase growth factor expression and to restore the rapid decrease in proteoglycan content in the initial phase following acute wounding. A temporal increase in intracellular growth factor expression suggests an autocrine and/or paracrine metabolic stimulation, which can be regarded a sign of chondrocytes repair capacity