Publications by authors named "David Falk"

In recent years, advances in the surgical treatment of adult spinal deformity (ASD) have led to improved outcomes. Although these advances have helped drive the development of deformity surgery to meet the rising volume of patients seeking surgical treatment, many challenges have yet to be solved. Instrumentation failure remains one of the most common major complications following deformity surgery, associated with significant morbidity due to elevated re-operation rates among those experiencing mechanical complications.

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  • * This study investigated soil infiltrability across five diverse landscapes in Kenya, measuring hydraulic conductivity (K) and analyzing various factors such as soil properties, land degradation, and vegetation.
  • * Findings showed that sand content, soil organic carbon, and vegetation diversity positively influence K, while erosion and grazing negatively affect it; thus, targeted land restoration strategies can improve soil infiltrability and help mitigate water scarcity.
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Purpose: Patients with adult spinal deformity (ASD) may have risk factors for nonunion and subsequent instrumentation failure. This study reviews a novel surgical technique for a quad-rod construct to the pelvis using both S2 alar iliac (S2AI) screw fixation and medialized entry iliac screw fixation as described through three separate cases and a review of the literature.

Methods: This technique facilitates alignment of the construct and rod insertion into the tulip heads.

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Despite their impressive academic track records and mastery of controlled classroom-based didactic learning, many orthopaedic surgery residents struggle to adjust from learning in the classroom environment in medical school to learning in the operating room as surgical residents. Instead of learning in lectures, surgical residents take on a more apprenticeship-based role with the goal of mastering technical skills in an experiential learning environment. Yet, no framework has been explicitly described in the literature to help learners make this transition.

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Background: Calcium sulfate (CS) is used extensively as an antibiotic carrier in the treatment of chronic osteomyelitis, largely due to its biodegradable nature. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to analyze the comprehensive performance of CS in the literature when compared to other biomaterials or treatments for osteomyelitis. We assess the ability of CS to eradicate infection and achieve other key clinical outcomes.

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Circadian rhythms provide daily temporal structure to cellular and organismal biological processes, ranging from gene expression to cognition. Higher-frequency (intradaily) ultradian rhythms are similarly ubiquitous but have garnered far less empirical study, in part because of the properties that define them-multimodal periods, non-stationarity, circadian harmonics, and diurnal modulation-pose challenges to their accurate and precise quantification. Wavelet analyses are ideally suited to address these challenges, but wavelet-based measurement of ultradian rhythms has remained largely idiographic.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the active range of motion in patients with thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) arthritis to healthy controls. A secondary objective of this study was to examine the feasibility of using wearable motion sensors in a clinical setting.

Methods: Asymptomatic controls and patients with radiographic and clinical evidence of thumb CMC joint arthritis were recruited.

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  • The study investigates the treatment options for pediatric ganglion cysts, comparing surgical and nonsurgical methods, including observation, aspiration, and orthosis, in terms of cyst resolution rates.
  • Results showed that surgical excision was the most effective treatment, achieving a cyst resolution rate of 73%, while observation alone had a 44% resolution rate, significantly higher than aspiration at 18%.
  • The findings indicate that nonsurgical interventions, such as aspiration and orthosis, do not significantly improve cyst resolution rates compared to observation alone, and highlight that older patients (over 10 years) tend to have lower resolution rates with observation.
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Purpose: Ganglion cysts of the hand/wrist are frequently managed without surgery but can be treated with surgical excision if there is pain or dysfunction. No studies have examined the specific factors predictive of surgical treatment for pediatric patients.

Methods: This was a study of pediatric patients (≤18 years) with ganglion cysts of the hand/wrist seen between 2017 and 2019 at 2 institutions.

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Purpose: Ganglion cysts are the most common mass of the hand or wrist. In adults, ganglions have a female predilection and are commonly located in the dorsal wrist. However, their presentation in children has not been well reported.

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Background: The field of limb lengthening has undergone substantial advancement in recent years with respect to the subjective patient experience, the rate of surgical complications, and the time required to achieve regenerate consolidation. We aimed to assess the performance of motorized internal limb lengthening (MILL) devices when compared with alternative methods of limb lengthening through systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methods: Studies comparing MILL methods with alternative forms of limb lengthening were included for systematic review.

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Objective: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is an established treatment modality for cervical spondylosis. Many patients are on immunosuppressant therapy in the management of various inflammatory spinal pathologies and other comorbid conditions. The impact of chronic steroid use on postoperative complications has not been examined in cervical fusion procedures.

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Background: Although risk factors contributing to UTI have been studied in posterior approaches to lumbar fusion, there is a lack of literature on factors contributing to UTI in anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF). Our purpose was to identify preoperative independent risk factors for postoperative urinary tract infection (UTI) following anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) so that surgeons may be able to initiate preventative measures and minimize the risk of UTI-related morbidity following ALIF.

Methods: The American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was queried to identify 10 232 patients who had undergone ALIF from 2005 to 2016; 144 patients (1.

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Case: A 20-year-old man with congenital arthrogryposis presented for evaluation of biceps dysfunction. Although his left elbow was supple with 0° to 110° passive range of motion (ROM), he had no active ROM and was unable to perform basic activities of daily living such as bringing his hand to his mouth to feed himself. A bipolar latissimus transfer was performed to achieve functional active ROM.

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This study aims to describe United States military veteran participation in adaptive sports and to assess the demographic make-up and organizational characteristics of existing adaptive sports programs. Prospective, cross-sectional survey. Community organizations with adaptive sports programs.

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Objective: Determine if differences in T1ρ would be detected in specific regions or layers of patellofemoral cartilage between patients with symptomatic patellofemoral pain syndrome and asymptomatic control subjects.

Materials And Methods: Ten subjects diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome were compared with ten age-, gender-, and BMI-matched control subjects with no knee pain or prior trauma. Conventional turbo (fast) spin echo sequences and T1ρ-weighted imaging were performed on the symptomatic knee in each of the ten subjects.

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Unlabelled: In the United States, approximately 2000 stingray injuries occur annually. The majority of reports on stingray injuries to the foot and ankle reflect acute injuries. Delayed presentation after stingray injury to the foot and ankle has not been reported.

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Introduction: Although there are reports of the impact of congestive heart failure (CHF) on total knee arthroplasty and total hip arthroplasty, there is a lack of literature analyzing CHF in hip hemiarthroplasty (HHA) procedures. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of CHF on risks for complications following HHA for the treatment of FNF.

Methods: The ACS-NSQIP database was queried for all patients who had undergone HHA from 2005 to 2016.

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Background: Instrumented lumbar fusion can be accomplished through open or minimally invasive techniques. The focus of this study was to compare perioperative narcotic usage and length of hospital stay between patients undergoing open versus minimally invasive spinal surgery (MISS).

Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on 110 patients who underwent instrumented lumbar fusion over 2 years at our institution.

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Case: A 51-year-old woman with a medical history noteworthy for endometrioid ovarian carcinoma presented with progressive left thumb swelling in the absence of trauma or injury. Radiographs revealed a lytic lesion in the distal phalanx. Inflammatory markers and white blood-cell count were mildly elevated.

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Cocoa flavanol (CF) intake improves endothelial function in patients with cardiovascular risk factors and disease. We investigated the effects of CF on surrogate markers of cardiovascular health in low risk, healthy, middle-aged individuals without history, signs or symptoms of CVD. In a 1-month, open-label, one-armed pilot study, bi-daily ingestion of 450 mg of CF led to a time-dependent increase in endothelial function (measured as flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD)) that plateaued after 2 weeks.

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Most cell types express two distinct forms of myosin I, amoeboid and short, distinguished by differences in their tail domains. Both types of myosin I have been implicated in the regulation of pseudopod formation in Dictyostelium discoideum. We examined three members of the myosin I family, one amoeboid, MyoB, and two short, MyoA and MyoB, for shared, unique and redundant functions in motility and chemotaxis.

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