Fall Risk Associated with Continuous Peripheral Nerve Blocks Following Knee and Hip Arthroplasty.

Combined scientific advances in pharmaceutical agents, perineural blocks, and pump delivery capabilities such as those used with continuous peripheral nerve blocks have demonstrated advantages in pain management for patients undergoing joint arthroplasty. This report documents the incidence of falls increased after the implementation of a continuous peripheral nerve block program for patients undergoing knee and hip arthroplasty in an academic medical center.

Clinical practice guidelines for early mobilization hours after surgery.

This clinical practice guideline (CPG) is the product of cohesive interdisciplinary collaboration. The impact of this project merits more than routine attention given the lack of published nursing literature. The Department of Nursing acted as the catalyst to improve the quality of patient care.

Patient compliance with outpatient prophylaxis: an observational study.

The need for prophylaxis against venous thromboembolic disease following lower-extremity joint replacement is well documented and accepted. Although low molecular weight heparin is approved for inpatient and extended prophylaxis beyond the hospital environment, orthopedic surgeons must determine the duration of injectable low molecular weight heparin based on the period of venous thromboembolic disease risk and on patient compliance with self-administration of medication at home. Lack of confidence in patients' ability to self-administer injections may contribute to hesitancy in prescribing injectable prophylaxis.

An implantable telemetry device to measure intra-articular tibial forces.

Tibial forces are important because they determine polyethylene wear, stress distribution in the implant, and stress transfer to underlying bone. Theoretic estimates of tibiofemoral forces have varied between three and six times the body weight depending on the mathematical models used and the type of activity analyzed. An implantable telemetry system was therefore developed to directly measure tibiofemoral compressive forces.

Venous thromboembolism: prevention & treatment.

Venous thromboembolism still threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the United States--and some of them are your patients. Here's how to put the latest research and technology to good use in the fight against thromboembolic disease.

The efficacy of continuous bupivacaine infiltration following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether continuous infiltration of a local anesthetic into the surgical wound for 48 hours will diminish the need for narcotics and improve the postoperative pain experience for patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using a patellar tendon autograft.

Type Of Study: Prospective, randomized, double-blind study with a placebo and an experimental group.

Methods: Twenty-six patients were randomly assigned to receive either normal saline (placebo) or bupivacaine (experimental) for 48 hours.

Erythrocyte viability in blood salvaged during total joint arthroplasty with cement.

Background: Erythrocyte salvage, the collection of a patient's blood shed from the surgical wound, is one aspect of blood management. Previous investigators have examined salvaged blood for content; however, to our knowledge, none have examined the viability of erythrocytes after exposure to the chemical and thermal reactions produced by motorized instruments and polymethylmethacrylate during surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the viability of salvaged erythrocytes from patients undergoing primary total joint arthroplasty with cement.