The Impact of Resident Involvement on Outcomes and Costs in Elective Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of resident involvement on periprocedural outcomes and costs after common procedures performed at an academic hand surgical practice. METHODS: A retrospective review was performed in all patients undergoing 7 common elective upper extremity procedures between January 2008 and December 2018: carpal tunnel release, distal radius open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF), trigger finger release, thumb carpometacarpal arthroplasty, phalanx closed reduction and percutaneous pinning, cubital tunnel release, and olecranon ORIF. The medical record was reviewed to determine the impact of surgical assistants (resident, fellow, or physician assistant) on periprocedural outcomes, periprocedural costs, and 1-year postoperative outcomes. The involvement of surgical trainees operating under direct supervision was compared with the entire operation performed by the attending surgeon with a physician assistant present. RESULTS: A total of 396 procedures met the inclusion criteria. Analysis of the whole study sample revealed low rates of intraoperative complications, wound complications, medical complications, readmissions, and mortality. Subgroup analysis of carpal tunnel releases revealed significantly greater tourniquet times for residents compared with physician assistants (7 ± 2 min, 6 ± 1 min), as well as longer overall operating room times for residents compared to fellows or physician assistants (17 ± 5 min, 13 ± 3 min, 12 ± 3 min). Operating room times for distal radius ORIF were significantly greater among residents compared to fellows or physician assistants (68 ± 19 min, 57 ± 17 min, 56 ± 14 min). There were no differences in any other perioperative metrics or periprocedural costs for the trigger finger release or cubital tunnel release cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: Resident involvement in select upper extremity procedures can lengthen operative times but does not have an impact on blood loss or operating room costs. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Surgeons should be aware that having a resident assistant slightly increases operative times in elective hand surgery.

What Factors Are Associated with Reoperation After Operative Treatment of Terrible Triad Injuries?

BACKGROUND: Terrible triad injuries of the elbow, consisting of posterior ulnohumeral joint dislocation with associated fractures of the radial head and coronoid process, are challenging injuries due to the difficulty in restoring stability to the joint surgically while also attempting to allow early ROM to prevent stiffness. Furthermore, complications are both debilitating and relatively common, frequently requiring reoperation. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: (1) What patient-, injury-, or surgery-related factors are associated with reoperation after surgical treatment of terrible triad injuries of the elbow? (2) What are the most common causes of reoperation after these injuries? METHODS: Between January 2000 and June 2017, we identified 114 patients who had surgery for terrible triad injuries at two tertiary-care referral centers. Of those, 40% (46 of 114) were lost to follow-up before 1 year, and an additional 5% (6 of 114) were excluded because they underwent the index surgery at an outside institution (n = 4) or underwent closed reduction with or without percutaneous pinning (n = 2). That left 62 patients for analysis in this retrospective study with a minimum of 1-year follow-up (median 22 months; range 12 to 65) or who met the endpoint of reoperation before 1 year. During the study period, indications for surgical treatment of terrible triad injuries of the elbow included joint incongruity or instability precluding early ROM. In our study cohort, 45% (28 of 62) underwent reoperation. Indications for reoperation after surgical treatment included stiffness that interfered with activities of daily life, symptomatic prominent hardware, ulnar neuropathy, instability of the elbow joint at rest or with range of motion, and infection. Patient-related (such as age, sex, race), injury-related (for example, ipsilateral extremity fracture, open fracture), and surgery-related factors (for instance, time to surgery, radial head treatment) as well as outcomes were collected by the treating surgeon at the time of follow-up and ascertained using chart review. The primary outcome measure was reoperation after surgical treatment of a terrible triad injury of the elbow. Bivariate analysis was used to assess whether explanatory variables were associated with reoperation after surgical treatment of terrible triad injuries of the elbow. RESULTS: Of the patient-, injury-, and surgery-related factors that were analyzed, only radial head treatment was associated with an increased reoperation risk (p = 0.03). No other variable met criteria for inclusion in our multivariable logistic regression model (p < 0.10), and therefore, a multivariable logistic regression model was not performed. The most common indication for reoperation was stiffness (21% [13 of 62 patients]), followed by symptomatic hardware (18% [11 of 62 patients]), nerve symptoms (ulnar neuropathy 16% [10 of 62 patients] and incisional neuroma 2% [1 of 62 patients]), instability (6% [4 of 62 patients]), and wound problems (infection 2% [1 of 62 patients]). CONCLUSION: The reoperation risk after surgical treatment of terrible triad injuries of the elbow is high. No patient- or injury-related factors were associated with the reoperation risk. Based on our finding, we recommend fixation of radial head fractures in these injuries when feasible and compatible with early postoperative motion, and we suggest the use of radial head excision or arthroplasty as a secondary options. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, therapeutic study.

Risk Factors of Lunate Collapse in Kienböck Disease.

PURPOSE: Not all patients with Kienböck disease progress to collapse of the lunate and carpal malalignment, but it is difficult to determine which patients are at risk. We aimed to identify demographic or anatomical factors associated with more advanced stages of Kienböck disease. METHODS: We included all 195 eligible patients with Kienböck disease and available preoperative posteroanterior and lateral radiographs. We compared the mean age, sex distribution, mean ulnar variance, radial height, radial (ulnarward) inclination, palmar tilt, anteroposterior distance, and lunate type among the different Lichtman stages of Kienböck disease and performed ordinal logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: We found that patients with more negative ulnar variance had more advanced stages of Kienböck disease (adjusted odds ratio, 1.4). An increase in age was also independently associated with a higher Lichtman stage of Kienböck disease (adjusted odds ratio, 1.02). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that more negative ulnar variance may be related to a greater magnitude of lunate collapse in Kienböck disease. Additional long-term study is needed to confirm the longitudinal relationship of negative ulnar variance with progressive Kienböck disease. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic II.

Involvement of the lesser sigmoid notch in elbow fracture dislocations.

BACKGROUND: This study addressed the primary null hypothesis that there is no difference in the articular surface area of the lesser sigmoid notch involved among Mayo classes. Secondarily, we analyzed the fracture line location and the pattern of lesser sigmoid notch articular surface involvement among Mayo classes. METHODS: Using quantitative 3-dimensional computed tomography, we reconstructed and analyzed fractures involving the lesser sigmoid notch articular surface in 52 patients. Further, we assessed the surface area involved in the fracture, the number of fracture fragments, and the location and direction of the fracture lines. Coronoid fractures were classified according to Mayo types. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between Mayo types 1 and 2 in any characteristic of the involvement of the lesser sigmoid notch articular surface, whereas Mayo type 3 was significantly different from both Mayo types 1 and 2 in the area involved in the fracture (42% in Mayo type 3 vs. 9% in Mayo types 1 and 2), the number of articular fragments (>3 fragments in type 3 vs. 2 fragments in types 1 and 2), and the direction of fracture line (both horizontal and vertical lines in type 3 vs. only horizontal line in types 1 and 2). CONCLUSION: Mayo type III results in a more complex fracture, which might need to be addressed directly or indirectly during open reduction with internal fixation of olecranon fracture dislocations because changes in the geometry of lesser sigmoid notch may affect the radioulnar joint if it remains incongruent.