Health-related quality of life in patients undergoing lumbar total disc replacement: A comparison with the general population.

OBJECTIVES: In up to half of the cases, low back pain (LBP) is thought to be related to a degeneration of the lumbar disc. Lumbar total disc replacement (LTDR) emerged as an alternative to fusion, but its use and indications are still subject to debate. The purpose of this paper was to compare Health-related Quality of life (HRQOL) in patients undergoing LTDR for one or two-level degenerative disc disease (DDD) with the paired age and gender general population values and to assess functional disability and residual pain at one year after the surgical procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A series of 51 patients operated on for a one or two level DDD, were evaluated at one year after the surgical procedure. HRQOL was compared to that of paired age and gender general population using the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire. Disability, back (BP) and leg pain (LP) were compared to the preoperative values. RESULTS: ODI showed a mean improvement of 31.78 (p<0.001, 95% CI 27.39-36.17), BP-VAS of 5.29/10 (95% CI 4.56-6.02), LP-VAS of 4.03/10 (95% CI 3.15-4.92) at one year compared to the preoperative assessment. HRQOL had similar values to the general population in 32 patients and inferior in 19 patients. "Pain" was the HRQOL dimension in which most of the patients had inferior results compared to data from the general population. Patients with previous spinal surgery had lower improvements in HRQOL index, disability, and pain than those without previous surgery. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the majority of patients improved their HQOL to values similar to those of the general population. Disability and pain are significantly reduced compared to preoperative evaluations. Larger scale studies are needed to identify the best candidates for LTDR.

Calidad del informe de alta hospitalaria realizado por médicos internos residentes de especialidades quirúrgicas / Quality of hospital discharge report conducted by surgical resident physicians

Introducción: Los médicos internos residentes (MIR) deben adquirir competencia en la correcta redacción del informe de alta hospitalaria (IAH). Este documento debe contener un conjunto de datos mínimos y ha de ser comprensible para el paciente, su médico de familia u otros profesionales. El proceso de adquisición de esta competencia ha sido poco estudiado y la calidad de los IAH firmados por MIR no se ha evaluado previamente. Sujetos y métodos: El presente estudio ha evaluado la calidad de 124 IAH de urgencias comparando aquellos firmados por especialistas, firmados únicamente por MIR o firmados por MIR y especialista, en las especialidades de cirugía ortopé- dica y traumatología y de cirugía general. Resultados: El resultado ha sido más favorable que el de publicaciones previas, con una puntuación superior a 7 sobre 10 en el 94,4% de los casos. Además, los IAH realizados por residentes de primer año y supervisados por especialistas han sido los informes con mejor puntuación, con diferencias estadísticamente significativas (p = 0,003). No se observaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los informes redactados por la mañana respecto de los redactados por la madrugada (p = 0,6). En cuanto a los contenidos, un 12,9% de los informes presentaba siglas de difícil comprensión. Conclusión: Nuestro estudio objetiva el efecto beneficioso de la supervisión del IAH en el primer año de residencia, al igual que se identifica un objetivo de mejora consistente en minimizar el uso de siglas médicas

Introduction: Resident intern physicians (MIR) must become competent in writing correct hospital discharge reports (HDR). This document must contain a minimum data set, and should be understandable to the patient, family doctor or other professionals. The acquisition of this competence has been little studied, and the quality of HDRs performed by MIR has not been previously evaluated. Subjects and methods: The present study evaluated the quality of 124 emergency HDRs comparing those signed by specialists, only signed or signed by MIR, or signed by MIR and specialist in the fields of Orthopaedic Surgery and General Surgery. Results: The result has been more favourable than that of previous publications, with a score of 7 out of 10 in 94.4 % of cases. HDRs made by first-year residents and supervised by specialists obtained the best scores with statistically significant differences (p = 0.003). No differences were observed between the reports by the morning or night (p = 0.6). In terms of content, 12.9% of reports had acronyms difficult to understand. Conclusion: Our study depicts the beneficial effect of HDR monitoring in the first year of residency as well as an improvement objective by minimizing the use of medical abbreviations

Internal fixation of proximal humerus fractures using the T2-proximal humeral nail.

INTRODUCTION: Surgical management of proximal humerus fractures remains controversial and there is an increasing interest in intramedullary nailing. Created to improve previous designs, the T2-proximal humeral nail (PHN) (Stryker) has been recently released, and the English literature lacks a series evaluating its results. We present a clinical prospective study evaluating this implant for proximal humeral fractures. METHOD: We evaluated the functional and radiological results and possible complications. Twenty-nine patients with displaced fractures of the proximal humerus were treated with this nail. One patient was lost right after surgery and excluded from the assessment. Eighteen patients were older than 70 years. RESULTS: There were 21 fractures of the proximal part of the humerus and 7 fractures that also involved the shaft; 15 of the fractures were two-part fractures (surgical neck), 5 were three-part fractures, and 1 was a four-part fracture. All fractures healed in a mean period of 2.7 months. There was one delayed union that healed in 4 months. One case of avascular necrosis of the humeral head was observed (a four-part fracture), but remained asymptomatic and did not require further treatment. In one case a back-out of one proximal screw was observed. A final evaluation with a minimum 1 year follow-up was performed by an independent observer; in 18 patients, the mean Constant score was 65.7 or 76.1% with the adjustment of age and gender; in 19 patients, the mean Oxford Shoulder Score was 21.7. The results obtained with the T2-PHN nail indicate that it represents a safe and reliable method in the treatment of two- and three-part fractures of the proximal humerus. The proximal fixation mechanism diminishes the rate of back-out of the screws, a frequent complication described in the literature. Better functional results were obtained from the patients younger than 70 years, but these were not statistically significant.

Mortalidad observada en las primera mil operaciones efectuadas bajo circulación extracorporea

Se presenta un informe preliminar sobre la mortalidad observada en los primeros 1000 casos de cirugía cardíaca bajo circulación extracorpórea efectuados en el Complejo Hospitalario Metropolitano de la Caja de Seguro Social, entre 1967 y 1987, y su distribución por año y por tipo de operación efectuada