Minimal invasive surgery for hip replacement: a new technique using the NILNAV hip system.

BACKGROUND: Minimal invasive surgical techniques are used for cruciate ligament reconstructions, unicondylar knee replacements and, more recently, for fixation of fractures. This is a report of the first instrumented technique for hip replacement using a 5-cm incision without the need for a navigation system or X-rays. METHODS: It uses the C.F.P stem (LINK) but is universal. It includes jigs for the osteotomy of the neck, a right-angled reamer and spacers (lollipops) to orientate the acetabular cup to the femoral stem. A case series of 14 patients using this new hip replacement technique (called NILNAV Hip System) is reported. RESULTS: The procedure was successfully performed on all seven patients, with reduced postoperative pain and stiffness, and increased quality of life and functional status. All patients were discharged on postoperative Days 1 and 2 with minimal pain and blood loss. CONCLUSIONS: This new minimal access total hip replacement technique was successfully performed on seven patients. There are several advantages of using this system compared with the more traditional techniques. Such a technique should help reduce morbidity and mortality rates for those patients undergoing a total hip replacement.

Self-inflicted burns: a case series.

Self-inflicted burns are regularly admitted to burns units worldwide. Most of these patients are referred to psychiatric services and are successfully treated however some return to hospital with recurrent self-inflicted burns. The aim of this study is to explore the characteristics of the recurrent self-inflicted burn patients admitted to the Royal North Shore Hospital during 2004-2011. Burn patients were drawn from a computerized database and recurrent self-inflicted burn patients were identified. Of the total of 1442 burn patients, 40 (2.8%) were identified as self-inflicted burns. Of these patients, 5 (0.4%) were identified to have sustained previous self-inflicted burns and were interviewed by a psychiatrist. Each patient had been diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder and had suffered other forms of deliberate self-harm. Self-inflicted burns were utilized to relieve or help regulate psychological distress, rather than to commit suicide. Most patients had a history of emotional neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse during their early life experience. Following discharge from hospital, the patients described varying levels of psychiatric follow-up, from a post-discharge review at a local community mental health centre to twice-weekly psychotherapy. The patients who engaged in regular psychotherapy described feeling more in control of their emotions and reported having a longer period of abstinence from self-inflicted burn. Although these patients represent a small proportion of all burns, the repeat nature of their injuries led to a significant use of clinical resources. A coordinated and consistent treatment pathway involving surgical and psychiatric services for recurrent self-inflicted burns may assist in the management of these challenging patients.

Motor vehicle accident or driver suicide? Identifying cases of failed driver suicide in the trauma setting.

Many authors have suggested that some road traffic crashes are disguised suicide attempts. A case report and literature review is used to explore this claim and to examine the frequency and risk factors associated with driver suicide. The author concludes the methodological difficulty of establishing the driver's intent of suicide accounts for an under-estimation of the frequency of this event and that many cases of driver suicide go unrecognised. Familiarity with the risk factors associated with driver suicide may assist in the identification of cases of failed driver suicide and referral to psychiatric services.

Mentalizing impairment in schizophrenia: a functional MRI study.

BACKGROUND: A deficit in Theory of mind (ToM) or 'mentalizing' has been purported to underlie the poor social functioning seen in patients with schizophrenia. To understand the neural basis of this deficit studies have primarily used tasks requiring 'off-line' or explicit mentalizing but, in daily life, successful social interactions depend upon implicit or 'on-line' mentalizing. Therefore in the present study we used functional neuroimaging and a task that elicits 'on-line' mentalizing to investigate the neural basis of ToM deficits in schizophrenia. METHODS: Functional MRI images were acquired from 20 male patients with established schizophrenia and 19 age and gender matched healthy controls while they watched animated sequences involving two triangles. In the control condition the two triangles moved at random whereas in the experimental condition they moved interactively with implied intentions. The identification of ToM networks and differential responses between groups, within this network, was investigated using a random effects model. To account for differences in educational status between the groups this was included as a covariate in the between group analysis. Correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between neural activity change during mentalizing and the clinical and functional outcomes of patients. RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia had significantly diminished activity in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) at the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and bilaterally within the inferior frontal gyri (IFG). Interestingly, frontal neural activity showed significant correlation with functional outcomes in patients with schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this novel study suggest that the ToM deficit in male schizophrenia patients may reflect impairment in the automatic or implicit processing of mentalizing. If replicated, this is an important finding that provides additional insight into the neural basis of impairments in social functioning that are experienced by patients with schizophrenia.

Cannabinoids for the treatment of schizophrenia? A balanced neurochemical framework for both adverse and therapeutic effects of cannabis use.

Recent studies have found that cannabinoids may improve neuropsychological performance, ameliorate negative symptoms, and have antipsychotic properties for a subgroup of the schizophrenia population. These findings are in contrast to the longstanding history of adverse consequences of cannabis use, predominantly on the positive symptoms, and a balanced neurochemical basis for these opposing views is lacking. This paper details a review of the neurobiological substrates of schizophrenia and the neurochemical effects of cannabis use in the normal population, in both cortical (in particular prefrontal) and subcortical brain regions. The aim of this paper is to provide a holistic neurochemical framework in which to understand how cannabinoids may impair, or indeed, serve to ameliorate the positive and negative symptoms as well as cognitive impairment. Directions in which future research can proceed to resolve the discrepancies are briefly discussed.