Are unilateral or staged bilateral total knee arthroplasty really safer than simultaneously bilateral TKA, or is it a myth?

The purpose is to evaluate feasibility of simultaneous TKA in comparison with staged and unilateral procedures. Number of patients included: 72 simultaneous bilateral, 61 staged bilateral and 222 unilateral TKAs were included. The mean age in the simultaneous group was lower than the other groups. Heart failure as comorbidity was observed less in the simultaneous TKA group than the other two groups. There was no significant difference between simultaneous and staged groups with respect to postoperative WOMAC and SF36 scores. Rates of thrombotic complications and mortality were not different. There was no significant difference in terms of wound healing, periprosthetic infection and TKA revision rates. Younger age and heart failure as a comorbidity were found to be decisive in the selection of simultaneous procedure. Thus, in the case of advanced bilateral knee osteoarthritis, simultaneous bilateral TKA should be performed after a proper preoperative risk assessment when there is a medical rationale, or the patient's personal preference. In the light of aforementioned conditions, hesitancy about simultaneous TKA seems unnecessary.

External Fixation Versus Hemiartroplasty In Unstable Intertrochanteric Hip Fractures Of The Elderly.

To compare two alternative methods : external fixation (EF) and hemiarthroplasty (HA) in elderly patients with unstable intertrochanteric hip fractures. Forty-two patients with Orthopaedic Trauma Association type 31A2-2 or 31A2-3 fractures treated between January 2007 and December 2010 were included. Twenty-two patients underwent hemiarthroplasty and twenty patients underwent external fixation. The mean length of stay in the operation room was 45 minutes and 108 minutes in the EF and HA groups, respectively (p<0.05). The mean postoperative length of hospital stay was 2.7 days in the EF group and 4.9 days in the HA group (p<0.05). The total length of hospital stay, functional scores and mortality rates were not different. Findings of the current study comparing EF and HA in a limited number of non-randomized elderly patients with unstable intertrochanteric fracture indicated that the EF method, when performed in a sufficiently stable manner, might be a valuable alternative to HA since it is less aggressive and cheaper.

Clinical features of patients diagnosed with degenerative rotator cuff tendon disease: a 6-month prospective-definitive clinical study from turkey.

[Purpose] In rotator cuff tendon disease (RCTD), anamnesis is as important as clinical findings and anatomic/radio diagnostic examination. This study aimed to investigate the clinical features of patients diagnosed with RCTD using clinical and radiological methods between March 2015 and August 2015 at Malatya Research and Training Hospital Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department. [Subjects and Methods] The study included 178 patients who were diagnosed with RCTD (128 females and 50 males). A questionnaire comprising 33 questions was given to each patient. [Results] Eighty-eight of the patients (49.9%) had an involvement on their right side, eighty-four (47.1%) had an involvement on their left side, and 6 had bilateral involvement. Mean visual analog scale (VAS) score was found to be statistically significant in favor of female patients. A statistically significant correlation was found between educational status and VAS. The body mass index (BMI) of the female patients was found to be higher than that of the male patients. Statistically significant correlation between doing risky work and gender showed that males were at a higher risk. [Conclusion] RCDT is more seen in people who have high BMI and are at their 50s. Pain complaint and BMI were found higher in female patients. DM, thyroid and cardiac diseases were seen more in the patients who are diagnosed with RCTD relative to the healthy population.

Treatment of Chronic Plantar Heel Pain With Radiofrequency Neural Ablation of the First Branch of the Lateral Plantar Nerve and Medial Calcaneal Nerve Branches.

From March 2012 to February 2013, 37 patients experiencing plantar heel pain for ≥6 months despite treatment with physical therapy and other conservative treatment modalities were followed up. If neurogenic heel pain originating from the first branch of the lateral plantar nerve was present, with or without the medial calcaneal nerve, diagnostic nerve blocks to these nerves were performed for confirmation. If the pain was determined to be of neurogenic origin, radiofrequency neural ablation (RFNA) was applied to the corresponding sensory nerve endings. Pain was evaluated using the visual analog scale, and patients were followed for at least one year. A total of 41 feet from 37 patients (30 [81.1%] females, 7 [18.9%] males; mean age, 50.7 ± 1.6 years; mean body mass index, 30.6 ± 0.7 kg/m(2)) were included. The mean visual analog scale scores improved significantly from 1 to 6 to 12 months after the procedure relative to before the procedure, with 88% of all patients rating the treatment as either very successful or successful at 12 months postoperatively. RFNA applied to both the first branch of the lateral plantar nerve and the medial calcaneal nerve sensory branches (16 [39%] feet) and only the first branch of the lateral plantar nerve sensory branches (25 [61%] feet) showed similarly high levels of success. Of the 41 feet, 28 [68.3%] had received extracorporeal shockwave therapy, 35 [85.4%] had received steroid injections, and 22 [53.7%] had received both extracorporeal shockwave therapy and steroid injections before RFNA as an index procedure. All were unresponsive to these previous treatments. In contrast, almost all (88%) were treated successfully with RFNA. Despite a high incidence of neurologic variations, with a precise diagnosis and good application of the technique using the painful points, chronic plantar heel pain can be treated successfully with RFNA.

Speech Driven Gaze in a Face-to-Face Interaction.

Gaze and language are major pillars in multimodal communication. Gaze is a non-verbal mechanism that conveys crucial social signals in face-to-face conversation. However, compared to language, gaze has been less studied as a communication modality. The purpose of the present study is 2-fold: (i) to investigate gaze direction (i.e., aversion and face gaze) and its relation to speech in a face-to-face interaction; and (ii) to propose a computational model for multimodal communication, which predicts gaze direction using high-level speech features. Twenty-eight pairs of participants participated in data collection. The experimental setting was a mock job interview. The eye movements were recorded for both participants. The speech data were annotated by ISO 24617-2 Standard for Dialogue Act Annotation, as well as manual tags based on previous social gaze studies. A comparative analysis was conducted by Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models that employed specific architectures, namely, VGGNet and ResNet. The results showed that the frequency and the duration of gaze differ significantly depending on the role of participant. Moreover, the ResNet models achieve higher than 70% accuracy in predicting gaze direction.

Fit assessment of two different anatomically contoured distal femur plate sets on cadaveric bones.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the fitness of two anatomic distal femoral plates with cadaveric femurs and to show whether current plates optimally match each femur. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two different sets of plates with five, seven and nine shaft holes were applicated on 62 cadaveric femurs. Ball clay was molded onto the entire inner surfaces of the plates and then the plates were fixed to the bones using two self-locking nylon cable zip ties. The volume of ball clay sandwiched in between the plate and bone was calculated and used as a quantitative fit parameter. Data of each plate were analyzed separately. RESULTS: Using Double Medical Technology IncorporatedTM plates, the mean plate to bone volumes were calculated as 8.4 mL (range, 5-14 mL), 10.0 mL (range, 6-17 mL), and 13.1 mL (range, 7-25 mL) in five, seven and nine-hole plates, respectively. Using Zimmer Biomet IncorporatedTM plates, the mean volumes were 10.5 mL (range, 6-21 mL), 12.7 mL (range, 7-22 mL) and 16.3 mL (range, 8-30 mL) in five, seven and nine-hole plates, respectively. Within each group, the measurements were significantly correlated positively with femoral length. CONCLUSION: Optimal fit may not be achieved in each femur using current distal femoral plate implant sets. Thus additional sizes of plates should be supplied in the implant sets.

Using Tibia Proximal Cut Autograft in Advanced Varus Knee Deformity in Total Knee Arthroplasty; Outcomes Compared to the Control Group.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) performed for advanced varus knee deformity, which is performed by using tibia proximal cut bone for the reconstruction of the tibia proximal medial bone defects, with a control group consisting of TKAs which did not need reconstruction. METHODS: Patients in the present study underwent total knee arthroplasty between 2009 and 2015. 12 patients with advanced varus deformity who had undergone reconstruction with tibia proximal cut autograft and 15 patients who were randomly selected from patients who did not need reconstruction, were compared clinically and radiographically. RESULTS: The mean follow-up period of the patients was found to be 73.1 ± 19.7 (36-108) months in the reconstruction group and 73.2 ± 12.3 (39-107) months in the control group. (p> 0.05) In both groups, significant improvement was observed postoperatively. In both groups, there was no evidence of loosening the required revision. WOMAC score was 32.4 ± 13.3 (8-64) in the reconstruction group and 28.9 ± 17.2 (6-70) in the control group at the last control visit. There was no difference between the groups when comparing the WOMAC scores at the last control visit. In the reconstruction group, the Hip-Knee-Ankle (HKA) angle was 26.1 ± 4.9 ° varus preoperatively and 1.3 ± 2.3 ° valgus postoperatively; and in the control group 10.1 ± 2.1 ° varus preoperatively and 2.7 ± 3.4 ° valgus postoperatively. (p> 0.05). CONCLUSION: In the present study, clinical and radiographic results of total knee arthroplasty patients, who suffered from advanced knee varus deformity and whose proximal tibia medial defects were reconstructed by using tibial proximal cut autograft, have been found to be successful when compared to the control group.

MAGiC: A Multimodal Framework for Analysing Gaze in Dyadic Communication.

The analysis of dynamic scenes has been a challenging domain in eye tracking research. This study presents a framework, named MAGiC, for analyzing gaze contact and gaze aversion in face-to-face communication. MAGiC provides an environment that is able to detect and track the conversation partner's face automatically, overlay gaze data on top of the face video, and incorporate speech by means of speech-act annotation. Specifically, MAGiC integrates eye tracking data for gaze, audio data for speech segmentation, and video data for face tracking. MAGiC is an open source framework and its usage is demonstrated via publicly available video content and wiki pages. We explored the capabilities of MAGiC through a pilot study and showed that it facilitates the analysis of dynamic gaze data by reducing the annotation effort and the time spent for manual analysis of video data.

Is it Possible to Recover Cardiac Functions After Total Knee Arthroplasty?

BACKGROUND: Patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis lead a less active life than their healthy peers. It is well known that insufficient physical activity is the most common cause of chronic diseases. However, there is not enough research to enlighten the effect of increased functional capacity on cardiac functions after Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA). This study aimed to investigate whether the orthopedic surgeons can predict that the patients will be healthier after TKA in terms of cardiac functions or not? METHODS: 109 patients who underwent TKA were prospectively followed for one year. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and short form 36 (SF-36) surveys, BMI measures, average step count per day, the six-minute walking test (6MWT), the Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand Test (FTSST) and Doppler echocardiography were performed both in the preoperative and postoperative period. RESULTS: After TKA, there was a substantial improvement in terms of WOMAC and SF36 survey scores. The average step count increased from 2199.6±690.8 steps/day to 4124.3±1638.8 steps/day. 6MWT and FTSST improved significantly as well. The average brisk walking time was 174.23±95.11 minutes/week. The means of early and late mitral inflow velocity ratios (E/A and Em/Am ratios) increased from 0.71±0.12 to 0.77±0.13 and from 0.66±0.13 to 0.76± 0.15 at the first year follow-up visit, respectively (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: In the first year, objective physical capacity measures increased together with the expected improvements in disease-specific and generic measures. After TKA, left ventricular diastolic functions may be considered to have recovered in the light of the healing signs via echocardiography.

Results of a compression pin alongwith trochanteric external fixation in management of high risk elderly intertrochanteric fractures.

BACKGROUND: External fixation is a well-known procedure for the management of intertrochanteric fractures in very elderly high-risk patients. A new compression pin that can be adapted to all fixators was designed to provide inter fragmentary compression. In the present study, its effects on the fracture stability and healing were evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one patients treated using compression pin and thirty-six patients treated using standard pins were evaluated retrospectively between January 2009 and July 2014. Patients were evaluated according to age, gender, duration of preoperative period, duration of operation time, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) scores, and immediate postoperative and final femoral neck angle measurements. The stability of the fixation was evaluated by calculating the secondary varus angulation after weight bearing. RESULTS: Thirty one patients (82.1 ± 6.1 years old) comprised the compression pin group, and 36 patients (83.33 ± 6.24 years old) comprised the standard pin group. From the time of weight bearing to healing time, 1.0 ± 1.25° (0-4) and 2.5 ± 1.8° (0-9) of secondary varus angulation in the compression pin and standard pin groups were measured, respectively (P = 0.000). With weight bearing, 2 of 31 (6%) and 9 of 36 (25%) patients in the compression and standard pin groups, respectively, had >4° of secondary varus angulation. In the compression pin group, 13 fractures were unstable, but only 2 (15%) of them had >4° of secondary varus angulation. In the standard pin group, 19 fractures were unstable, and 7 (37%) of them had >4° of secondary varus angulation. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of very elderly, high risk patients' with intertrochanteric fractures with external fixation is effective. Compression pin maintained stability better than standard pins after weight bearing, especially for unstable intertrochanteric fractures.

Tracheal intubation in patients immobilized by a rigid collar: a comparison of GlideScope and an intubating laryngeal mask airway.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Intubation must be rapidly performed with the utmost care in cervical trauma patients. We present the first comparison of GlideScope and an intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILMA) regarding insertion and intubation times, intubation success rates, mucosal damage, need for optimization maneuvers, effects on hemodynamic changes, and postoperative minor complications in a simulated cervical injury with a Philadelphia cervical collar. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ethics committee approval and patient consent were obtained and 94 American Society of Anesthesiology physical status I or II patients were enrolled in this study. Following standard anesthesia monitoring and induction, the Philadelphia-type cervical collar was applied and patients were subsequently intubated with ILMA or GlideScope. RESULTS: The total intubation success rates were similar between the groups (96%). The insertion (14.9 ± 10 s vs. 21.9 ± 6.5 s, respectively; P < 0.001) and intubation (43.5 ± 13 s vs. 48.4 ± 11 s; P = 0.02) times for ILMA were longer than for GlideScope. The total intubation times for ILMA were longer than the intubation time for GlideScope (43.5 ± 13 s vs. 85.6 ± 13 s; P < 0.001). The mucosal damage was higher in the ILMA group (P = 0.04). The two airway devices increased the heart rate and mean arterial pressure after insertion compared with the postinduction values within groups. CONCLUSION: GlideScope is superior to ILMA in terms of lower insertion and intubation times and lower levels of mucosal damage in cervical collar-immobilized patients.