Injury
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Injury is the most common reason for admission to hospital in people with dementia in Australia. However relatively little is known about the temporal trends and the hospital experience of people with dementia hospitalised for an injury. This population-based data linkage study compared the causes, temporal trends and health outcomes for injury-related hospitalisations in people with and without dementia. ⋯ People with dementia are disproportionately represented in injury-related hospitalisations, experience longer hospital LOS and have poorer outcomes. Ninety percent of hospitalisations for people with dementia were as a result of a fall, highlighting the importance of developing and implementing effective fall-related preventive strategies in this high risk population.
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Tree stand falls are the most common injury to hunters in the USA, but there is limited research on the topic. This study examined the 5-year trends in incident tree stand fall injuries in rural north-central Wisconsin and described patient demographics and injury features. ⋯ The current seasonal incidence rate of tree stand fall injuries is relatively low in rural Wisconsin, but with limited signs of improvement. Continued efforts are needed to promote the long-term safety of the hunting public.
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Several decades ago, a clinical condition that included severe bone overgrowth was described in a few patients in South Africa. The autosomal-recessive disease that later was named sclerosteosis was found to be caused by a mutation in the SOTS gene causing a lack of the protein sclerostin. This protein is produced by osteocytes and exerts its effect as an inhibitor of bone formation by blocking the Wnt signaling pathway. ⋯ Wnt signaling might also play an important role in fracture healing with substances that causes an upregulation of the Wnt pathway producing enhancement of the fracture healing process. Healing of experimental fractures in various animal models have shown improvement following subcutaneously administered anti-sclerostin antibody. While there are no published reports on the potential effect of systemically administered anti-sclerostin antibodies on fracture healing in humans.
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Large bone defects caused by fracture, non-union and bone tumor excision has been a major clinical problem. Autogenous bone grafting and Ilizarov method are commonly performed to treat them. However, bone grafting has limitation in volume of available bone, and Ilizarov method requires long periods of time to treat. ⋯ We named the cells as Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Chondrocytes (MSC-DCs). The success of reconstruction of a massive 15-mm femur defect (approximately 50% of the rat femur shaft length) provides a sound foundation for potential clinical application of this technique. We believe our results may offer a new avenue of reconstruction of large bone defect, especially in view of the their high reproducibility and the excellent biomechanical strength of repaired femora.