Respiratory syncytial virus hospitalization trends in infants with chronic lung disease of infancy, 1998-2008.

Objective: Infants with chronic lung disease of infancy (CLDI) are at high risk for severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) illness requiring hospitalization. Palivizumab was first licensed in 1998 for the prevention of RSV disease in high-risk infants, including those with CLDI. We performed a retrospective cohort study of all hospitalized children with CLDI aged <2 years between 1998 and 2008 in the USA to determine trends in rates of hospitalizations due to RSV (RSVH) since the launch of palivizumab.

Biomechanical evaluation of kyphoplasty with calcium phosphate cement in a 2-functional spinal unit vertebral compression fracture model.

Background Context: Kyphoplasty is used to treat vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) by inflating a balloon within the vertebral body (VB) to create a void, thereby reducing the fracture, and then depositing polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) into that void to augment the VB. Calcium phosphate (CaP) may be preferable to PMMA because it is resorbable and nontoxic, although there are concerns about its compressive strength during the setting process.

Purpose: To evaluate the ability of a particular self-setting CaP cement to restore the structural integrity of a VCF in a 2-functional spinal unit (2FSU) cadaver model under physiologically relevant loading.

Wear and corrosion in retrieved thoracolumbar posterior internal fixation.

Study Design: Posterior thoracolumbar spine implants retrieved as part of routine clinical practice over a 2-year period were analyzed to identify wear and corrosion.

Objective: Engineering analyses of retrieved posterior instrumentation for indications of performance and failure and correlation of this information with clinical factors.

Summary Of Background Data: Recent studies have reported spinal instrumentation particulate wear debris and have noted the importance of design considerations at implant connector interfaces.

Implications of vehicle roll direction on occupant ejection and injury risk.

Vehicle roll direction and occupant position have been shown to affect occupant kinematics. Data from NASS-CDS were analyzed for risk of serious or greater injuries and ejection with respect to the position of the occupant (near side or far side). The risk of AIS 3+ injuries was higher for unrestrained occupants, for ejected occupants, for occupants involved in rollovers with higher numbers of quarter turns, and for far side occupants.

Incidence of thoracic and lumbar spine injuries for restrained occupants in frontal collisions.

The increased utilization of three-point restraint systems has greatly reduced the incidence of spinal injuries in motor vehicle accidents. Nevertheless, several studies which rely upon the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) have documented lower thoracic and upper lumbar fractures in restrained occupants involved in frontal collisions of moderate severities. Although it has been postulated that the injury mechanism may be related to the occupant being out-of-position or sitting in an unusual posture, conclusions with regard to the precise mechanism of injury are difficult due to the lack of information contained in the NASS database.

Biomechanical factors and injury risk in high-severity rollovers.

The number of rolls, as well as other factors, has been associated with increased injury risk in rollovers. Data from NASS-CDS from 1995-2003 were used to evaluate the biomechanical implications of vehicle kinematics during multiple rolls and to evaluate the risk of injuries to different body regions during rollovers. The data showed that the risk of injury increased with increasing number of rolls.