Orthopedics
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened a joint meeting of 3 advisory committees in June 2009 to review and propose recommendations for reducing the incidence of acetaminophen-induced liver injury. The committee voted in favor of 7 of the 9 recommendations that will be taken to the FDA for executive review and action. The actions supported by the committee represent potentially sweeping changes to both over-the-counter and prescription acetaminophen-containing products. This article reviews the committee process, previous FDA actions on acetaminophen, and implications of the recommendations made for the orthopedic practitioner.
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Salmonella species are rare bacterial isolates in osteomyelitis. This article describes a case of an otherwise healthy, active duty male military member with an insidious onset of right knee pain during a deployment to Kuwait. His work-up revealed an infectious process in the distal femur. ⋯ Identification of Salmonella species from intraoperative cultures should prompt consultation with the infectious disease department for culture-specific antibiotic tailoring. Many common antibiotic agents active against gram-negative organisms seem efficacious. As in this case, following the basic tenets of osteomyelitis management should lead to an acceptable outcome.
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The stress response, which is triggered by a number of factors, including surgery, results in activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis and subsequent release of cortisol from the adrenal glands. Critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency is an inadequate corticosteroid response relative to a patient's illness; patients with critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency have both insufficient circulating cortisol and impaired cellular use of glucocorticoids. Corticosteroids, such as hydrocortisone, have been cited to improve survival, oxygenation, duration of mechanical ventilation, and intensive care unit-free days in critically ill patients. Perioperative glucocorticoid supplementation is also recommended in patients with secondary adrenal insufficiency due to chronic corticosteroid use.
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Clinical Trial
Intermediate outcomes after primary traumatic anterior shoulder dislocation in skeletally immature patients aged 10 to 13 years.
A paucity of literature exists regarding the outcome of skeletally immature patients who sustain a primary traumatic anterior shoulder dislocation. Most published results focus on adolescents and young adults, using recurrent dislocation/instability as a determinant of outcome, rather than a validated quality of life measurement tool. The purpose of this study is to assess the intermediate term functional outcome after anterior traumatic shoulder dislocation in the skeletally immature patient population. ⋯ Subgroup analysis revealed that those treated nonoperatively fared better than their operative counterparts (average final follow-up WOSI score, 9.1 vs 151.7, respectively). Three patients (21.4%) ultimately sustained a recurrent shoulder dislocation that necessitated surgical intervention. Based on the above data, in the pediatric skeletally immature patient who sustained a primary, traumatic, anterior shoulder dislocation, nonoperative treatment results in low shoulder instability recurrence risk and sound functional outcomes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Injection in the cervical facet joint for shoulder pain with myofascial trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle.
The goal of this double-blinded, randomized, controlled study was to confirm the effectiveness of the cervical facet joint injection in treating shoulder pain with the myofascial trigger point in the upper trapezius muscle secondary to cervical facet lesion. Eighty-nine patients with chronic unilateral shoulder pain due to myofascial trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle received an injection to the C4-5 facet joint in the experimental group and to the corresponding unilateral multifidi muscle in the control group. Subjective pain intensity and pressure pain threshold of the myofascial trigger point were assessed, and the prevalence of endplate noise in the myofascial trigger point region was measured in 28 patients before, immediately after, and 1 month after the injection. ⋯ Both the decrease in the pain intensity and the increase in pressure pain threshold were significantly more in the experimental group than in the control group either immediately or 1 month after the injection. There was no significant difference in the change of endplate noise prevalence between the 2 groups. This study demonstrates that intra-articular or peri-articular injection into the cervical facet joint region can effectively inactivate the upper trapezius myofascial trigger point secondary to the facet lesion.