Median palmar cutaneous nerve injury in a volleyball player.

A 14-yr-old female patient, a competitive high school volleyball player, was seen for an evaluation of right-hand numbness and tingling. Her symptoms began insidiously, midway through her second season of competitive play. Numbness and tingling improved with rest but returned immediately after resuming competition.

Vertebral augmentation with a flexible curved needle: preliminary results in 17 consecutive patients.

This report details a trial demonstrating the viability of a blunt-tipped curved needle for use as a cement injection device for vertebral body augmentation. Between January and September 2007, 17 consecutive patients (eight men and nine women; average age, 76 years; age range, 52-97 years) underwent vertebral body augmentation with a blunt-tipped curved nitinol injection needle via a single pedicle to treat pain due to acute vertebral body compression fractures. All patients were successfully treated without complication.

Medicare's new restrictions on rehabilitation admissions: impact on the elderly.

Objective: To measure the impact of Medicare's "75% rule" on readmission and death rates in elderly patients affected by the rule.

Design: Retrospective study of two cohorts, both aged > or =65, discharged from a single medical center, from acute care with diagnoses excluded by the 75% rule. Group 1 (n = 4107) represented discharges in the year before the rule's enforcement and group 2 (n = 3893) for the rule's inaugural year.

The "baseball cap orthosis": a simple solution for dropped head syndrome.

Dropped head syndrome (DHS) is a well-recognized condition characterized by gradual sagging of the head. At the extreme, the condition may lead to a "chin on chest deformity" where the chin rests on the chest wall and the patient is unable to look straight ahead. Dropped head syndrome tends to develop in patients with severe weakness of the neck extensors.

Migraines linked to interferon-beta treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Migraine headache is now emerging as a previously under-recognized side effect of interferon-beta, the most commonly used therapy for relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). We describe an MS patient who developed migraine headaches, which followed a specific pattern coincident with interferon-beta administration. The frequency and severity of these migraines escalated and seemed to culminate in an MS exacerbation.

Exercise for the dialyzed: aerobic and strength training during hemodialysis.

Objective: To investigate the safety and feasibility of aerobic and strength training during hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease patients and to evaluate its impact on their cardiac fitness, muscle strength, and functional status.

Design: A total of 22 patients undergoing hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease had assessment of their cardiac fitness with stress tests and walk tests, assessment of their muscle strength by one repetition maximum of knee extension, and assessment of their functional status by Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 before and after exercise training. Training, consisting of cycle ergometer exercise and strengthening of the knee extensors two to three times a week for 3 mo, was done during dialysis.

Lumbar spinal strains associated with whiplash injury: a cadaveric study.

Objectives: To study and quantify the effects of rear-end collision on the lumbar spine.

Design: The lumbar spine of a cadaver was instrumented with rosette strain gauges applied on the lateral and anterior surfaces of T12, L2, and L4. Biaxial accelerometers were mounted on L1, L3, and L5.