An Advanced Knee Simulator Model Can Reproducibly Be Used for Ligament Balancing Training during Total Knee Arthroplasty.

A critical and difficult aspect of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is ligamentous balancing for which cadavers and models have played a large role in the education and training of new arthroplasty surgeons, although they both have several shortcomings including cost, scarcity, and dissimilarity to in vivo ligament properties. An advanced knee simulator (AKS) model based on computed tomography (CT) scans was developed in the setting of these challenges with cadavers and previous models. In this study, we compared the ligament balancing between AKS and human cadaveric knees to assess the validity of using the AKS for ligament balancing training during TKA.

Robotic-assisted Total Knee Arthroplasty Technology Provides a Repeatable and Reproducible Method of Assessing Soft Tissue Balance.

Soft-tissue balancing is an important factor in primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA), with 30 to 50% of TKA revisions attributed to technical operative factors including soft-tissue balancing. Robotic-assisted TKA (RATKA) offers opportunities for improved soft-tissue balancing methods. This study aimed to evaluate the repeatability and reproducibility of ligamentous laxity assessments during RATKA using a digital tensioner.

Comparison of three-versus two-dimensional pre-operative planning for total hip arthroplasty.

Background: A successful clinical outcome for total hip arthroplasty (THA) depends on accurate sizing and positioning of the implants. Using three-dimensional (3-D) pre-operative planning with a computerized tomography (CT) scan has many potential advantages over conventional 2-D planning using radiographs, including potentially more accurate assessments of the size and anteversion of the acetabulum, as well as lateral femoral offset. The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of 3-D to 2-D templating with respect to acetabular and femoral size, as well as lateral femoral offset.

Pragmatic language and associations with externalizing behaviors in autistic individuals and those who have lost the autism diagnosis.

Background: Pragmatic language weaknesses, a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are implicated in externalizing behavior disorders (Gremillion & Martel, 2014). Particularly in a clinical setting, these co-occurring externalizing disorders are very common in autism; rates of Attentional Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) are as high as 83% (ADHD) and 73% (ODD; Joshi et al., 2010).

Registry Data Show Complication Rates and Cost in Revision Hip Arthroplasty.

Background: Revision total hip arthroplaty (rTHA) places a burden on patients, surgeons, and health care systems because outcomes and costs are less predictable than primary THA. The purpose of this study was to define indications and treatments for rTHA, quantify risk for readmissions, and evaluate the economic impacts of rTHA in a hospital system.

Methods: The arthroplasty database of a hospital system was queried to generate a retrospective cohort of 793 rTHA procedures, performed on 518 patients, from 2017 to 2019 at 27 hospitals.

Online administration of the ADOS for research with adolescents and adults in response to the pandemic.

This study evaluates an online ADOS-2 Module 4 administration. Adolescents and adults with (n = 24; 7 females) and without (n = 13; 5 females) a history of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) completed the ADOS-2 Module 4 via videoconference. Parents or caregivers completed the Parent/Caregiver Form of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales and the Achenbach Adult Behavior Checklist.

The Economic Impact of Lower Extremity Periprosthetic Fractures in a Large Hospital System.

Background: Periprosthetic fractures (PPFs) place a burden on hospital systems. They occur in older patients with medical comorbidities, as unplanned events requiring technically complex surgeries with expensive implants. The purpose of this study was to describe this patient population and evaluate the economic impact of PPFs on a hospital system.

Dissociations in the neural substrates of language and social functioning in autism spectrum disorder.

Impairments in social communication (coupled with intact nonsocial language skills) are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the neural correlates of these social communication deficits in adolescents and young adults with ASD are not fully understood. The communication checklist self-report (CC-SR) was administered to adolescents and young adults with ASD (n = 52) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 64) to assess structural-language, pragmatic-language, and social-engagement.

Aspirin use in the prevention of cardiovascular events.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and Oklahoma, and Oklahoma ranks 50th in CVD deaths. This paper will describe CVD and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in Oklahoma and review current recommendations regarding aspirin use for the prevention of CHD events.

Methods: The CDC Compressed Mortality File for 1999-2004 was accessed.

Update on hantavirus in Oklahoma: are we missing cases?

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) was first recognized in 1993. Through July 6, 2005, 396 cases have been reported in the US, including 50 from Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. We report the second case of HPS in Oklahoma and present data from rodent testing to support the presence of hantaviruses across Oklahoma.

Fatal necrotizing colitis following a foodborne outbreak of enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens type A infection.

Background: Enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens type A is the third leading cause of foodborne disease in the United States, resulting annually in an estimated 250,000 cases of a typically mild, self-limiting gastrointestinal illness.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine the cause of a small cluster of cases of gastrointestinal illness, which included cases of severe necrotizing colitis. Participants in the study consisted of residents and staff of a residential care facility for the mentally ill in Oklahoma (n = 20).

A large nosocomial outbreak of hepatitis C and hepatitis B among patients receiving pain remediation treatments.

Background And Objective: In August 2002, the Oklahoma State Department of Health received a report of six patients with unexplained hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treated in the same pain remediation clinic. We investigated the outbreak's extent and etiology.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of clinic patients, including a serologic survey, interviews of infected patients, and reviews of medical records and staff infection control practices.

Terrorism from a public health perspective.

The use of biological and chemical weapons as agents of warfare and terrorism has occurred sporadically, but recent events demonstrate the increasing risk and possibility that terrorist groups with grievances against the government or groups may employ them. Historically, most evaluations of the potential risk for biological weaponry have focused on the military, but the recent release of anthrax in the United States demonstrates that civilian populations are also at risk. More likely than not, most bioterrorism events will be of a small scale; however, agents such as Bacillus anthracis and Yersinia pestis could leave hundreds of thousands dead or incapacitated.

Second-hand tobacco smoke in Oklahoma: a preventable cause of morbidity and mortality and means of reducing exposure.

Evidence has mounted in recent years establishing second-hand tobacco smoke exposure as a cause of morbidity and mortality in nonsmokers. The ratio of deaths is approximately one nonsmoker dying from illness caused by second-hand smoke exposure for every eight smokers who die from diseases caused by tobacco use. This is equivalent to about 750 nonsmoker deaths each year in Oklahoma caused by exposure to second-hand smoke.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in unusually young patients who consumed venison.

Background: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk occur in the United States. Recent reports of 3 unusually young patients with CJD who regularly consumed deer or elk meat created concern about the possible zoonotic transmission of CWD.

Objective: To examine the possible transmission of CWD to humans.

Improving the health of Oklahomans through clinical prevention, Part III: Immunizations and chemoprophylaxis.

Vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of biomedical science and public health and are clearly one of the most effective tools of clinical prevention. Diseases that once caused significant morbidity and mortality in Americans--particularly children--have been virtually eliminated from the population through effective immunization programs. But until these diseases have been eradicated globally we must continue to maintain high immunization levels to prevent their return; a 90% coverage rate has been set as the national goal for recommended vaccines in preschool age children.

Prevalence of American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) among dogs in Oklahoma.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection among dogs in Oklahoma.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Animals: 301 owned or impounded dogs related by ownership or general geographic location to 3 dogs determined to have trypanosomiasis.

Improving the health of Oklahomans through clinical prevention, part II: Screening to identify early-stage disease and risk factors.

The purpose of screening is to identify asymptomatic disease, or risk factors for disease, so that interventions can occur as early as possible in the disease process. The primary goal is to decrease the morbidity the patient experiences from the disease. For infectious diseases, screening can benefit not only the individual with the disease but also the community, since infectious persons can be identified and treated prior to transmitting the disease to others.

High prevalence of penicillin-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae at a community hospital in Oklahoma.

During 1997, Oklahoma City's Hospital A reported penicillin-nonsusceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae in almost 67% of isolates. To confirm this finding, all Hospital A S. pneumoniae isolates from October 23, 1997, through February 19, 1998, were tested for antibiotic susceptibility and repeat-tested at two other hospital laboratories.

Medical response to bioterrorism: are we prepared?

The 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City made terrorism a shocking reality for all Oklahomans. The fact that such an event could happen here, far from foreign political and ethnic conflicts and from large coastal cities, made us realize that no one is immune from the terrorist threat. But as horrific as that event and other terrorist incidents have been, the present threat of the use of infectious agents in acts of terrorism has the potential to cause far greater human death and suffering than any previously used terrorist weapon.