Pre-Operative Predictors for Discharge to Post-Acute Care Facilities After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Background: Joint replacement surgery is in increasing demand and is the most common inpatient surgery for Medicare beneficiaries. The venue for post-operative rehabilitation, including early outpatient therapy after surgery, influences recovery and quality of life. As part of a comprehensive total joint program at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, we developed and validated a predictive model to anticipate and plan the disposition for rehabilitation of our patients after total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

Development and Validation of a Model for Predicting Rehabilitation Care Location Among Patients Discharged Home After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Background: Demand for joint replacement is increasing, with many patients receiving postsurgical physical therapy (PT) in non-inpatient settings. Clinicians need a reliable tool to guide decisions about the appropriate PT setting for patients discharged home after surgery. We developed and validated a model to predict PT location for patients in our health system discharged home after total knee arthroplasty.

Insulin-like growth factors in normal and diseased kidney.

This article reviews the physiology of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system in the kidney and the changes and potential role of this system in selected renal diseases. The potential therapeutic uses of recombinant human IGF-I for the treatment of acute and chronic kidney failure are briefly discussed.

No thyroid abnormalities in patients submitted to cardiac catheterization in the first eighteen months of life.

Background: No data are available about the risk of thyroid disturbance after exposure to low-dose radiation due to the use of cardiac catheterization in the first years of life.

Aim: To determine the risk of functional and morphological thyroid abnormalities in a homogeneous cohort of patients who underwent diagnostic low-dose radiation for heart catheterization during the first 18 months of life.

Subjects And Methods: Fifty-five patients, submitted to cardiac catheterization during the first 18 months of life, underwent evaluation of the thyroid function and structure after a median period of 13 yr since the first radiation exposure.

The use of bone age in clinical practice - part 1.

This review examines the role of skeletal maturity ('bone age', BA) assessment in clinical practice. BA is mainly used in children with the following conditions: short stature (addressed in part 1 of this review), tall stature, early or late puberty, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (all addressed in part 2). Various manual and automatic methods of BA assessment have been developed.