Développement de la version franco-canadienne du questionnaire Risk Assessment and Prediction Tool (RAPT) chez une population préhospitalière recourant à une arthroplastie de la hanche ou du genou.

Purpose: The primary purpose is to translate and assess the transcultural validity of the RAPT - a pre-operation questionnaire that helps predict the clients' post-operation process - for the French-Canadian population requiring an arthroplasty of the hip or of the knee. The second purpose is to determine the standard error of measurements of the French-Canadian version of RAPT. Method: The transcultural translation and adaptation process of RAPT follows four steps: (1) initial translation, (2) retro-translation, (3) assessment of the questionnaire's clarity by patients, 4) assessment of the translation's transcultural validity. Furthermore, the RAPT standard error of measurements was calculated. Results: Participants were recruited at the Hull and Montfort hospitals. Twenty participants were recruited for step 3 and 83 participants for step 4. Results suggest that the RAPT and the French-Canadian translation (RAPT-FC) are comparable, with intraclass, intralanguage, interlanguage and temportal interlanguage correlation coefficents that varied from 0.858 to 0.988. The standard error of measurements is 0.8. Conclusions: The RAPT-FC tool is comparable to the original English version of the RAPT. Using this questionnaire could help in the planning of postoperative resources associated to hip and knee replacements within the French-Canadian population.

Development of the French-Canadian Version of the Self-Administered Comorbidities Questionnaire (SCQ) in a hospital population undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty.

The Self-Administered Comorbidity Questionnaire (SCQ) is a tool used by hospitalized patients to self-report their comorbidities. It can help to explain the effectiveness of hip or knee arthroplasty, its complications, the length of hospital stay and perioperative resource utilization. HYPOTHESIS: The French-Canadian version of the SCQ will be suitable for use in a Canadian hospital population. OBJECTIVES: (1) translate and evaluate the transcultural validity of the SCQ in a French Canadian population undergoing hip or knee arthroplasty; (2) determine the standard error of measurement (SEM) in the French Canadian version. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The translation and transcultural adaptation process consisted of four steps: (1) initial translation; (2) back translation; (3) assessment of questionnaire clarity with patients; (4) assessment of the translation's transcultural validity. The SEM was also calculated. RESULTS: Twenty participants were recruited for step 3 and 83 participants for step 4. The original English version of the SCQ and the translated French-Canadian version (SCQ-FC) were similar with intra-class correlation coefficients for the intra-language and inter-language agreement between 0.71 and 0.97. The SEM was 1.92. CONCLUSION: The SCQ-FC is comparable to the original English language version. Using this questionnaire allows us to document the comorbidities present in patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty in a French-Canadian population, and the impact of these comorbidities on the patients' health. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V, Prospective study.

SPIRALE: a multispecies in situ balloonborne instrument with six tunable diode laser spectrometers.

The balloonborne SPIRALE (a French acronym for infrared absorption spectroscopy by tunable diode lasers) instrument has been developed for in situ measurements of several tracer and chemically active species in the stratosphere. Laser absorption takes place in an open Herriott multipass cell located under the balloon gondola, with six lead salt diode lasers as light sources. One mirror is located at the extremity of a deployable mast 3.5 m below the gondola, enabling the measurement of very low abundance species throughout a very long absorption path (up to 544 m). Three successful flights have produced concentration measurements of O3, CO, CO2, CH4, N2O, NO2, NO, HNO3, HCl, HOCl, COF2, and H2O2. Fast measurements (every 1.1 s) allow one to obtain a vertical resolution of 5 m for the profiles. A detection limit of a few tens of parts per trillion in volume has been demonstrated. Uncertainties of 3%-5% are estimated for the most abundant species rising to about 30% for the less abundant ones, mainly depending on the laser linewidth and the signal-to-noise ratio.

Giant cell tumor of long bone: a Canadian Sarcoma Group study.

A multicentric retrospective study of giant cell tumor of bone was conducted among Canadian surgeons. The hypothesis was that no differences would be found in health status, function, or recurrence rate irrespective to the nature of filling material or adjuvant used in patients treated with curettage. One hundred eighty-six cases were collected. There were 96 females and 90 males. The mean age of the patients was 36 years (range, 14-72 years), the minimum followup was 24 months, and the median followup was 60 months. Sixty-two percent of the tumors involved the knee region. One hundred fifty-eight were primary tumors and 28 were recurrences. Campanacci grading was as follows: Grade 1, seven patients; Grade 2, 100 patients; Grade 3, 76 patients; and unknown in three patients. Fifty-six patients had a pathologic fracture. Resection was done in 38 patients and 148 patients had curettage. The latter was supplemented with high speed burring in 135 patients, cement in 64 patients, various combinations of autograft or allograft bone in 61 patients, phenol in 37 patients, and liquid nitrogen in 10 patients. Structural allografts were used in 25 patients. The overall recurrence rate was 17%, 18% after curettage, and 16% after resection. Patients with primary tumors treated with curettage had a 10% recurrence rate. For recurrent lesions treated by curettage, the recurrence rate was 35%. The nature of the filling material used or the type of adjuvant method used or any combination of both failed to show any statistical impact on the recurrence risk. The results from the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society rating from 1987 were significantly lower in patients who sustained a displaced fracture. Results from the bodily pain section of the Short Form-36 also were found to be lower when a pathologic fracture was present. Results from the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Rating 1987, the Short Form-36, and the Toronto Extremity Salvage Score did not show differences when either cement or bone graft were used after curettage.