The four-strand staggered suture for flexor tendon repair: in vitro biomechanical study.

Purpose: To assess in vitro biomechanical properties of a 4-strand flexor tendon suture compared to 3 established suture techniques. This technique, which is made of 2 alternating and staggered sutures, one external to the tendon and the other internal, must be sufficiently resistant to withstand loads applied by modern, early active mobilization protocols.

Methods: Forty flexor hallucis longus tendons were harvested from fresh cadavers, cut, and repaired using 4 different suture techniques (Strickland, Wolfe, modified Savage, and a new technique called 4-strand staggered).

Treatment of wrist and hand fractures with natural magnets: preliminary report.

The Authors, after having defined the phenomenon and the biological characteristics of natural magnets, evaluate their ability in accelerating the formation of bone callus in hand and wrist fractures compared to treatment with immobilization in a plaster cast. Forty patients (4 females and 37 males) between 20 and 86 years of age were treated. A small natural magnet was inserted in each of the plaster casts (diameter: 2cm, height: 0.

Hahn-Steinthal fracture: report of two cases.

Isolated capitellar fractures are rare injuries accounting for only 1% of all elbow fractures. Type I or Hahn-Steinthal fractures require internal fixation to restore the anatomic integrity of the elbow joint. Many different fixation methods have been described and, independently of the method chosen, precise reduction is mandatory to maximize articular congruency and to diminish the potential for secondary osteoarthritis.

Proximal forearm fractures: our clinical experience.

Forearm traumas are frequent and sometimes complex; soft tissue damages associated with bone lesions could be underestimated and so compromise the final result, in spite of a good reduction and osteosynthesis. Articular and iuxta-articular proximal radius and ulna fractures, which can be associated to radio-humeral dislocations in Monteggia lesions, are less frequent compared to diaphyseal fractures and can present a lot of therapeutical difficulties and a high rate of complications. These complications are avoided and reduced if the treatment is quick and focused on stable osteosynthesis and anatomical reduction of the fragments of the fracture and followed, as soon as possible, by rehabilitation.