Serial elongation, derotation and flexion (EDF) casting under general anesthesia and neuromuscular blocking drugs improve outcome in patients with juvenile scoliosis: preliminary results.

PURPOSE: Juvenile scoliosis (JS), among different types of spinal deformity, remains still a challenge for orthopedic surgeons. Elongation, derotation and flexion (EDF) casting technique is a custom-made thoracolumbar cast based on a three-dimensional correction concept. The primary objective of the present study was to measure changes on plain radiographs of patients with JS treated with EDF plaster technique. The second aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the EDF plaster technique realized under general anesthesia (GA) and neuromuscular blocking drugs, i.e. curare, on the radiological curve correction. METHODS: A retrospective comparative case series study was performed in which were included forty-four skeletally immature patients. Three patient groups were selected. Group 1: EDF cast applied with patients awaken and no anesthesia; Group 2: EDF cast applied under GA without neuromuscular blocking drugs; Group 3: EDF cast applied under GA with neuromuscular blocking drugs. All the patients were treated with two serial EDF casts by 2 months and a half each. All measurements were taken from the radiographic exams. Cobb's angle; RVAD and Nash and Moe grade of rotation were assessed before and after applying the cast. Thirty-four (77.3 %) patients were followed up at least 24 months after removal of last EDF cast. RESULTS: Eighteen patients (3 males, 15 females) were included in Group 1, 12 (2 males, 10 females) in Group 2 and 14 (5 males, 9 females) in Group 3. Serial EDF casting was more effective at initial curve reduction and in preventing curve progression when applied under GA with neuromuscular blocking drugs, i.e. curare. RVAD and Nash and Moe score improved significantly in all groups of patients treated according to principles of EDF technique. During follow-up period, six patients required surgery in Group 1 (6/18; 33.3 %), 3 patients required surgery in Group 2 (3/12; 25 %) and 2 patients underwent surgery in Group 3 (2/14; 15 %). CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results show EDF casting is effective in controlling the curve in both frontal (Cobb's angle) and transverse plane (rib vertebral angle and apical vertebral rotation degree).

Displaced Tibial Shaft Fractures With Intact Fibula in Children: Nonoperative Management Versus Operative Treatment With Elastic Stable Intramedullary Nailing.

BACKGROUND: The main objective of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of displaced tibial shaft fractures with intact fibula in children after nonoperative management and operative treatment by elastic stable intramedullary nailing. METHODS: A study was performed on 80 consecutive children, 56 males, 24 females from 2 Institutions, with displaced and closed tibial shaft fracture with intact fibula. All patients underwent regular clinical and radiographic follow-up visits for at least 2 years after injury. RESULTS: In total, 26 patients (group A-Institution I) were treated surgically by elastic stable intramedullary nailing and 54 patients (18 patients from group B-Institution I and 36 patients from group C-Institution II) were treated nonoperatively with closed reduction and casting. groups A, B, and C did not significantly differ on sex (P=0.37), side (P=0.54), and fracture site (P=0.14).Valgus deformity was significantly controlled in group A patients only (P=0.001); during follow-up in group B patients (P=0.017), and showed no significant change between pretreatment images and last follow-up in group C patients (P=0.71). Procurvatum deformity was significantly controlled in group A patients only (P=0.001); it showed no significant improvement after conservative treatment in group B (P=0.73) and C patients (P=0.8). Recurvatum was significantly improved in group A (P<0.001) and C patients (P<0.001) but remained unchanged in group B patients (P=0.15). Varus deformity improved significantly in all patient groups.Immobilization time was significantly shorter in group A compared with group B and C patients (P<0.001).However, numerical differences, although statistically significant, were not clinically relevant for all variables but immobilization time. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed good functional and radiologic outcomes in the pediatric population who had sustained closed, traumatic, displaced fracture of tibial diaphysis without associated fibula fracture.On the basis of the findings reported here, it is not contraindicated to operate skeletally immature patients with displaced fracture of tibial diaphysis without associated fibula fracture. However, results were essentially the same and either method is a satisfactory choice for pediatric tibia shaft fractures with an intact fibula. In particular, we found that conservative treatment was as efficacious as surgical treatment apart from the length of time for immobilization. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III.

A Comprehensive Evaluation of Deep Learning Models on Knee MRIs for the Diagnosis and Classification of Meniscal Tears: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: This study delves into the cutting-edge field of deep learning techniques, particularly deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs), which have demonstrated unprecedented potential in assisting radiologists and orthopedic surgeons in precisely identifying meniscal tears. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of deep learning models in recognizing, localizing, describing, and categorizing meniscal tears in magnetic resonance images (MRIs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This systematic review was rigorously conducted, strictly following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Extensive searches were conducted on MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. All identified articles underwent a comprehensive risk of bias analysis. Predictive performance values were either extracted or calculated for quantitative analysis, including sensitivity and specificity. The meta-analysis was performed for all prediction models that identified the presence and location of meniscus tears. RESULTS: This study's findings underscore that a range of deep learning models exhibit robust performance in detecting and classifying meniscal tears, in one case surpassing the expertise of musculoskeletal radiologists. Most studies in this review concentrated on identifying tears in the medial or lateral meniscus and even precisely locating tears-whether in the anterior or posterior horn-with exceptional accuracy, as demonstrated by AUC values ranging from 0.83 to 0.94. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these findings, deep learning models have showcased significant potential in analyzing knee MR images by learning intricate details within images. They offer precise outcomes across diverse tasks, including segmenting specific anatomical structures and identifying pathological regions. Contributions: This study focused exclusively on DL models for identifying and localizing meniscus tears. It presents a meta-analysis that includes eight studies for detecting the presence of a torn meniscus and a meta-analysis of three studies with low heterogeneity that localize and classify the menisci. Another novelty is the analysis of arthroscopic surgery as ground truth. The quality of the studies was assessed against the CLAIM checklist, and the risk of bias was determined using the QUADAS-2 tool.