Lessons Learned: Patient Communication During the Pandemic.

A series of mortalities among musculoskeletal tumour patients secondary to medical illnesses during the first few months of the pandemic highlighted the need to review our methods of communication with patients. Prominent among patients' concerns had been a fear of consulting at hospitals and a lack of ready access to health care. Recommendations are made for proactive consultation and patient education, identifying at-risk patients for follow-up and probing for possible co-morbidities. Telemedicine use is encouraged bearing in mind its inherent limitations. A network of physicians and pharmaceutical representatives is an added help we can offer our patients who may be isolated by community quarantine.

Lessons Learned: Patient Communication During the Pandemic

@#A series of mortalities among musculoskeletal tumour patients secondary to medical illnesses during the first few months of the pandemic highlighted the need to review our methods of communication with patients. Prominent among patients’ concerns had been a fear of consulting at hospitals and a lack of ready access to health care. Recommendations are made for proactive consultation and patient education, identifying at-risk patients for follow-up and probing for possible co-morbidities. Telemedicine use is encouraged bearing in mind its inherent limitations. A network of physicians and pharmaceutical representatives is an added help we can offer our patients who may be isolated by community quarantine.

Tumour endoprosthetic reconstruction for primary aggressive and malignant bone tumours of the distal femur.

UNLABELLED: At the Philippine General Hospital, tumour endoprostheses have become an option for reconstruction after limb saving surgery for primary bone tumors. We performed a retrospective review of patients with primary bone tumors of the distal femur who underwent tumor excision and reconstruction using tumor endoprostheses. Outcome measures included prosthetic survival, functional outcome and complications. Twenty-two patients were evaluated; 14 males and 8 females, with a mean age of 18 years and a mean follow-up of 56 months. The overall 2-year endoprosthetic survival rate was 86%. Mean MSTS was 23/30. There were a total of 6 revisions. Failure modes included 3 infections, 3 aseptic loosening, 4 structural failures, 2 soft tissue failures and 3 tumor progression. Our early results show that tumor endoprosthesis reconstruction is an acceptable option for patients with primary bone tumor of the distal femur. Survival rates, failure modes and functional outcomes are comparable to other reported studies. KEY WORDS: Supracondylar humerus, K-wire fixation, day care procedure.

Plastic deformation of both forearm bones

A case of acute traumatic bowing or plastic deformation of both forearm bones was described. A discussion of the mechanism of injury, management, and orthopedic implications of traumatic bowing was given