Injury
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Young femoral neck fracture patients require surgical fixation to preserve the native hip joint and accommodate increased functional demands. Recent reports have identified a high incidence of fracture shortening and this may have negative functional consequences. We sought to determine if fracture shortening is associated with poor functional outcome in young femoral neck fracture patients. ⋯ Severe shortening is associated with clinically important decreases in functional outcome as measured by HHS following fixation of young femoral neck fractures, occurring in 13% of patients in this population. The principle of fracture site compression utilized by modern constructs may promote healing; however, excessive shortening is associated with worse patient-reported outcomes and objective functional measures.
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Multicenter Study
Delayed presentation or delayed diagnosis? A retrospective study of prospectively collected data of 482 foot and ankle injuries.
Delayed presentation of injury cases is common in developing countries like India. It is prudent to study reasons for delayed presentations to focus preventive measures towards responsible factors. Since foot and ankle orthopaedics is in its infancy in India, it was deemed to be worthwhile to study reasons for delayed presentations of foot and ankle injuries. ⋯ In developing countries like India, patients did neglect their foot and ankle injuries and presented late. In fact, by way of delayed diagnosis, clinicians were more responsible for indirect delayed presentations of foot and ankle injuries. This is contrary to the common belief that in developing countries like India, only patients would be solely responsible for delayed presentations after injury. Because delayed diagnosis by clinicians seemed more alarming than delayed presentation by patients, focus of prevention of foot and ankle injuries in developing countries should shift more towards educating clinicians than patients.