Functional outcomes of bone tendon bone versus soft tissue arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: a comparative study.

Objective: To compare functional outcomes of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using 2 graft techniques and to determine factors affecting these outcomes.

Methods: Thirty-four consecutive patients with ACL injuries surgically treated at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between November 2003 and February 2011 were retrospectively assessed. Reconstruction was with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft in 16 patients (BPTB group) and hamstring soft tissue autograft in 18 patients (ST group).

Compression screw fixation of the syndesmosis.

Background: Screw fixation of syndesmotic injuries facilitates ligament healing and restoration of ankle stability, but little information regarding screw performance is available. This study quantified the reduction obtained with three common 2-screw configurations using different methods of reduction and novel methods of subsequently provoking and measuring diastasis.

Methods: Seven fresh-frozen lower extremities were subjected to 100 N medial and lateral tibia loads with the talus restrained.

Comparison of conventional and non-invasive techniques for the early identification of diabetic neuropathy in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Background: Neuropathy is an important complication and contributes to the morbidity of diabetes mellitus. The availability of simple and non-invasive tests for screening of early diabetic neuropathy (DN) in children with diabetes may prevent further progression of this complication. The purpose of this study was to compare conventional nerve conduction studies (NCS) with non-invasive techniques, including vibration perception thresholds (VPT) and tactile perception thresholds (TPT) for the detection of DN in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Unique clinical phenomenology can help distinguish primary from secondary generalized seizures in children.

The physical manifestations a seizure produces provide critical information. It is assumed that all generalized convulsions are ostensibly the same, regardless of whether they are primary or secondary generalized seizures. We undertook a pilot study to determine if the clinical phenomenology of secondary generalized seizures in children with epilepsy is different from classic descriptions of generalized tonic-clonic convulsions.

Infantile spasms in remission may reemerge as intractable epileptic spasms.

Background: West syndrome consists of infantile spasms with hypsarrhythmia and is perceived as a disorder of infants.

Methods: We describe 10 patients with West syndrome with spasms that remitted, started again, and persisted (followed up for 8-25 years).

Results: In all, West syndrome developed at younger than 17 months (five cryptogenic, six symptomatic).

Is a fast necessary when initiating the ketogenic diet?

The purpose of this study was to determine time of onset of ketosis and efficacy when the classic ketogenic diet is initiated at full calories without a prior fast in children with epilepsy. A retrospective hospital and neurology clinic chart review was done of all 14 children commenced on the classic ketogenic diet at full calories without a prior fast between January 1, 1997, and May 31, 2001, to determine time to ketosis, time to good ketosis (urine ketones > or =80 mg/dL), and success of the ketogenic diet. Median age at diet initiation was 63 months (25th-75th percentile 47-149 months).