Diagnosis and clinical management of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP): a consensus statement from the TTP Catalan group.

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a low prevalence disease characterized by severe deficiency of the enzyme ADAMTS13, leading to the development of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) and often resulting in severe organ disfunction. TTP is an extremely serious condition and, therefore, timely and appropriate treatment is critical to prevent life-threatening complications.Over the past 25 years, significant advances in the understanding of the pathophysiology of immune TTP have led to the development of readily available techniques for measuring ADAMTS13 levels, as well as new drugs that are particularly effective in the acute phase and in preventing relapses.

Multiligamentary Reconstruction in a Below-Knee Amputation Patient.

Multiligament injuries in below-knee amputation patients are a severe condition, and its treatment is controversial. Its incidence is unknown, and it is highly underdiagnosed, representing a challenge for the physician. The case presented is about a patient with a left transtibial amputation secondary to a severe crushing of the ipsilateral lower limb to which during the process of physiotherapy, a multiligament injury was diagnosed.

Robotic-assisted vs conventional surgery in medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: a clinical and radiological study.

Background: The use of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has increased and new technologies have been developed to improve patient survival and satisfaction, soft tissue balance, alignment, and component size. Robot-assisted systems offer an increase in surgical precision and accuracy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the precision of component position using five radiological parameters in conventional and robotic-assisted medial UKA using the NAVIO system.

Twist-n-Sync: Software Clock Synchronization with Microseconds Accuracy Using MEMS-Gyroscopes.

Sensor networks require a high degree of synchronization in order to produce a stream of data useful for further purposes. Examples of time misalignment manifest as undesired artifacts when doing multi-camera bundle-adjustment or global positioning system (GPS) geo-localization for mapping. Network Time Protocol (NTP) variants of clock synchronization can provide accurate results, though present high variance conditioned by the environment and the channel load.

Robotic-assisted Unicompartmental knee Arthroplasty optimizes joint line restitution better than conventional surgery.

Purpose: To compare joint line restoration after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) between conventional and robotic-assisted surgery. Previous studies have shown that joint line distalization can lead to higher failure rates. The hypothesis was that robotic-assisted UKA is associated with less femoral component distalization and a precise tibial cut, which allows a more anatomical restitution of the knee joint line.

Relationship between the ABO blood group and COVID-19 susceptibility, severity and mortality in two cohorts of patients.

Background: Several articles reported the existence of an association between ABO blood groups and COVID-19 susceptibility. Group A and group O individuals showed a higher and lower risk, respectively, of becoming infected. No association was observed between ABO groups and mortality.

Robotic-assisted surgery in medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: does it improve the precision of the surgery and its clinical outcomes? Systematic review.

There is a high prevalence of knee osteoarthritis that affects only the medial tibiofemoral compartment. In this group of patients with severe disease, the medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is an excellent choice. However, this technique has a great learning curve due to the lower tolerance of improper positioning and alignment.

Posterolateral corner of the knee: an expert consensus statement on diagnosis, classification, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Purpose: To develop a statement on the diagnosis, classification, treatment, and rehabilitation concepts of posterolateral corner (PLC) injuries of the knee using a modified Delphi technique.

Methods: A working group of three individuals generated a list of statements relating to the diagnosis, classification, treatment, and rehabilitation of PLC injuries to form the basis of an initial survey for rating by an international group of experts. The PLC expert group (composed of 27 experts throughout the world) was surveyed on three occasions to establish consensus on the inclusion/exclusion of each item.

No association between positive intraoperative allograft cultures and infection rates after reconstructive knee ligament surgery.

Background: Several reports of severe infections associated with allograft tissue in knee reconstructive surgery have led many surgeons to consider routine intraoperative culture of allograft tissue before implantation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of positive soft tissue allograft cultures in reconstructive knee surgery, and evaluate its association with surgical site infection.

Methods: Retrospective study of 202 patients who underwent knee reconstructive ligament surgeries, including revisions, between January 2013 and July 2017.

Multi-Functional Sensing for Swarm Robots Using Time Sequence Classification: HoverBot, an Example.

Scaling up robot swarms to collectives of hundreds or even thousands without sacrificing sensing, processing, and locomotion capabilities is a challenging problem. Low-cost robots are potentially scalable, but the majority of existing systems have limited capabilities, and these limitations substantially constrain the type of experiments that could be performed by robotics researchers. Instead of adding functionality by adding more components and therefore increasing the cost, we demonstrate how low-cost hardware can be used beyond its standard functionality.

Femoral tunnel drilling angles for the posterolateral corner in multiligamentary knee reconstructions: computed tomography evaluation in a cadaveric model.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine the best angle at which to drill the femoral tunnels of the popliteus tendon (PT) and fibular collateral ligament (FCL) in combined reconstructive procedures so as to avoid either short tunnels or tunnel collisions with the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) femoral tunnels.

Methods: Eight cadaveric knees were studied. ACL/PCL femoral tunnels were arthroscopically drilled.