Injury
-
Vertebral Fragility Fractures (VFF) are common and lead to pain, long term disability and increased mortality. Most patients will have mild to moderate pain symptoms and can be managed conservatively. However, patients with severe pain who have minimal or no pain relief with potent analgesia, or who only achieve adequate pain relief with high doses of morphine based analgesia which results in significant adverse events, should be considered for vertebral augmentation. ⋯ The Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) recommends Percutaneous Vertebroplasty as the first line surgical augmentation technique for VFF in older people, which has been shown to improve pain symptoms, allow early restoration of functional mobility and may reduce the risk of further vertebral collapse. CIRSE recommends percutaneous Balloon Kyphoplasty as second line treatment in VFF, although the optimal indication is for acute traumatic vertebral fractures (less than 7-10 days) in younger people. Assessment and treatment of underlying osteoporosis is important to reduce the risk of further fractures in older people with VFF.
-
The Fragility Fracture Network is coordinating international initiatives to promote collaborative research, multidisciplinary care, and the secondary prevention of fragility fractures. This review discusses the use of national audit processes and the collection of common outcomes to facilitate research, as well as the key role played by patient and public involvement, and strategies to overcome research barriers.
-
The aim of this study was to biomechanically compare three different fixation methods for the fixation of anterior column posterior hemitransverse type acetabular fracture (ACPHT). ⋯ A combination of posterior lag screws over a suprapectineal plate and an infrapectineal plate supporting the pelvic brim along both sides of the linea terminalis resulted in a better fixation construct than a suprapectineal plate accompanying with a vertical infrapectineal plate provide better stability with less fracture displacement.
-
Surgical treatment of AO/OTA type 33-C fractures is a therapeutic challenge despite advances in surgical instruments and techniques. We introduce a novel surgical technique named transient retrograde interfragmentary compression (TRIC) to help intraarticular fragment reduction in AO/OTA type 33-C fracture. We inserted a partial threaded 7.0-cannulated screw with a washer along the transepicondylar axis from the medial femoral epicondyle during the articular block reduction process of AO/OTA type 33-C fractures to strengthen the compressive force between the condylar fragments and to enhance the handling of the articular block fragment in the alignmental correction stage. ⋯ The median value of the horizontal fracture gap and vertical step off was 0 and 0.46 mm, respectively. Mean time to union in the bicondylar fracture fragment was 9 week. TRIC is considered to be a valuable surgical reduction technique in the treatment of the AO/OTA 33-C type fractures.
-
As longevity increases globally, the number of older, frailer, comorbid patients requiring fragility fracture surgery will increase. Fundamentally, anaesthesia should aim to maintain these patients' pre-fracture cognitive and physiological trajectories and facilitate early (ie day 1) postoperative recovery. This review describes the 10 general principles of anaesthesia for fragility fracture surgery that best achieve these aims: multidisciplinary care, 'getting it right first time', timely surgery, standardisation, sympathetic anaesthesia, avoiding ischaemia, sympathetic analgesia, re-enablement, data collection and training.