Reported Outcome Measures in Complex Fracture Elbow Dislocations: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Complex elbow fracture dislocations, dislocation with fracture of one or several surrounding bony stabilizers, are difficult to manage and associated with poor outcomes. While many studies have explored treatment strategies but a lack of standardization of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) makes cross-study comparison difficult. In this systematic review, we aim to describe what injury patterns, measured outcomes, and associated complications are reported in the complex elbow fracture dislocation literature to provide outcome reporting recommendations that will facilitate improved future cross-study comparison. METHODS: A systematic review was performed per PRISMA guidelines. We queried PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases to identify articles published between 2010 and 2022 reporting on adult patients who had a complex elbow fracture dislocation. Pathologic fractures were excluded. A bias assessment using the methodological index for non-randomized studies criteria was conducted. For each article, patient demographics, injury pattern, outcome measures, and complications were recorded. RESULTS: Ninety-one studies reporting on 3664 elbows (3654 patients) with an elbow fracture and dislocation (weighted mean age 44 years, follow-up of 30 months, 41% female) were evaluated. Of these, the injury pattern was described in 3378 elbows and included 2951 (87%) terrible triad injuries and 72 (2%) transolecranon fracture-dislocations. The three most commonly reported classification systems were: Mason classification for radial head fractures, Regan and Morrey coronoid classification for coronoid fractures, and O'Driscoll classification for coronoid fractures. Range of motion was reported in 87 (96%) studies with most reporting flexion (n=70), extension (n=62), pronation (n=68), or supination (n=67). Strength was reported in 11 (12%) studies. PROMs were reported in 83 (91%) studies with an average of 2.6 outcomes per study. There were 14 outcome scores including the Mayo Elbow Performance Score (MEPS) (n=69 [83%]), the Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score (n=28 [34%]), the visual analog scale for pain (VAS) (n=27 [33%]), QuickDASH score (n=13 [15.7%]), and Oxford Elbow score (n=5 [6.0%]). No significance was found between the number of PROMs used per article and the year of publication (P=.313), study type (P=.689), complex fracture pattern (P=.211), or number of elbows included (P=.152). CONCLUSION: There is great heterogeneity in reported PROMs in the complex elbow fracture dislocation literature. Although there is no gold standard PROM for assessing complex elbow fracture dislocations, we recommend the use of at least the MEPS and DASH outcomes measures as well as VAS pain rating scale in future studies to facilitate cross-study comparisons.

Quantifying success after first revision reverse total shoulder arthroplasty: the minimal clinically important difference, substantial clinical benefit, and patient acceptable symptomatic state.

BACKGROUND: When patients require revision of primary shoulder arthroplasty, revision reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (rTSA) is most commonly performed. However, defining clinically important improvement in these patients is challenging because benchmarks have not been previously defined. Our purpose was to define the minimal clinically important difference (MCID), substantial clinical benefit (SCB), and patient acceptable symptomatic state (PASS) for outcome scores and range of motion (ROM) after revision rTSA and to quantify the proportion of patients achieving clinically relevant success. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used a prospectively collected single-institution database of patients undergoing first revision rTSA between August 2015 and December 2019. Patients with a diagnosis of periprosthetic fracture or infection were excluded. Outcomes scores included the ASES, raw and normalized Constant, SPADI, SST, and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) scores. ROM measures included abduction, forward elevation (FE), external rotation (ER), and internal rotation (IR) score. Anchor-based and distribution-based methods were used to calculate the MCID, SCB, and PASS. The proportions of patients achieving each threshold were assessed. RESULTS: Ninety-three revision rTSAs with minimum 2-year follow-up were evaluated. Mean age was 67 years, 56% were female, and average follow-up was 54 months. Revision rTSA was performed most commonly for failed anatomic TSA (n = 47), followed by hemiarthroplasty (n = 21), rTSA (n = 15), and resurfacing (n = 10). The indication for revision rTSA was most commonly glenoid loosening (n = 24), followed by rotator cuff failure (n = 23), subluxation and unexplained pain (n = 11 for both). The anchor-based MCID thresholds (% of patients achieving) were as follows: ASES, 20.1 (42%); normalized Constant, 12.6 (80%); UCLA, 10.2 (54%); SST, 0.9 (78%); SPADI, -18.4 (58%); abduction, 13° (83%); FE, 18° (82%); ER, 4° (49%); and IR, 0.8 (34%). The SCB thresholds (% of patients achieving) were as follows: ASES, 34.1 (25%); normalized Constant, 26.6 (43%); UCLA, 14.1 (28%); SST, 3.9 (48%); SPADI, -36.4 (33%); abduction, 20° (77%); FE, 28° (71%); ER, 15° (15%); and IR, 1.0 (29%). The PASS thresholds (% of patients achieving) were as follows: ASES, 63.5 (53%); normalized Constant, 59.1 (61%); UCLA, 25.4 (48%); SST, 7.0 (55%); SPADI, 42.4 (59%); abduction, 98° (61%); FE, 110° (56%); ER, 19° (73%); and IR, 3.3 (59%). CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes thresholds for the MCID, SCB, and PASS at minimum 2-years after revision rTSA, providing physicians an evidence-based method to counsel patients and assess patient outcomes postoperatively.

Characterization of Bacillus anthracis replication and persistence on environmental substrates associated with wildlife anthrax outbreaks.

Anthrax is a zoonosis caused by the environmentally maintained, spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis, affecting humans, livestock, and wildlife nearly worldwide. Bacterial spores are ingested, inhaled, and may be mechanically transmitted by biting insects or injection as occurs during heroin-associated human cases. Herbivorous hoofstock are very susceptible to anthrax. When these hosts die of anthrax, a localized infectious zone (LIZ) forms in the area surrounding the carcass as it is scavenged and decomposes, where viable populations of vegetative B. anthracis and spores contaminate the environment. In many settings, necrophagous flies contaminate the outer carcass, surrounding soils, and vegetation with viable pathogen while scavenging. Field observations in Texas have confirmed this process and identified primary browse species (e.g., persimmon) are contaminated. However, there are limited data available on B. anthracis survival on environmental substrates immediately following host death at a LIZ. Toward this, we simulated fly contamination by inoculating live-attenuated, fully virulent laboratory-adapted, and fully virulent wild B. anthracis strains on untreated leaves and rocks for 2, 5, and 7 days. At each time point after inoculation, the number of vegetative cells and spores were determined. Sporulation rates were extracted from these different time points to enable comparison of sporulation speeds between B. anthracis strains with different natural histories. We found all B. anthracis strains used in this study could multiply for 2 or more days post inoculation and persist on leaves and rocks for at least seven days with variation by strain. We found differences in sporulation rates between laboratory-adapted strains and wild isolates, with the live-attenuated strain sporulating fastest, followed by the wild isolates, then laboratory-adapted virulent strains. Extrapolating our wild strain lab results to potential contamination, a single blow fly may contaminate leaves with up to 8.62 x 105 spores per day and a single carcass may host thousands of flies. Replication outside of the carcass and rapid sporulation confirms the LIZ extends beyond the carcass for several days after formation and supports the necrophagous fly transmission pathway for amplifying cases during an outbreak. We note caution must be taken when extrapolating replication and sporulation rates from live-attenuated and laboratory-adapted strains of B. anthracis.