Advancement of physical process by mental activation: a prospective controlled study.

According to the literature, patients who are significantly impaired by physical mobility limitations can be rehabilitated if the patient's working memory is used to capacity. The conclusion that periodic mental activity improves physical rehabilitation should be evaluated. This is a prospective, controlled, and randomized open study of patients who underwent a total hip arthroplasty (THA).

Hedgehog signaling controls fibroblast activation and tissue fibrosis in systemic sclerosis.

Objective: Hedgehog signaling not only plays crucial roles during human development but also has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several diseases in adults. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the hedgehog pathway in fibroblast activation in systemic sclerosis (SSc).

Methods: Activation of the hedgehog pathway was analyzed by immunohistochemistry and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Foot loading characteristics of different graduations of partial weight bearing.

Limited weight bearing of the lower extremity is a commonly applied procedure in orthopaedic rehabilitation after reconstructive forefoot surgery, trauma surgery and joint replacement. The most frequent limitations are given as percentage of body weight (BW) and represent 10 or 50% BW. The extent of foot loading under these graduations of partial weight bearing has not yet been described in detail.

Negative pressure wound therapy to prevent seromas and treat surgical incisions after total hip arthroplasty.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) to improve wound healing after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and its influence on the development of postoperative seromas in the wound area.

Materials: The study is a prospective randomised evaluation of NPWT in patients with large surgical wounds after THA, randomising patients to either a standard dressing (group A) or a NPWT (group B) over the wound area. The wound area was examined with ultrasound to measure the postoperative seromas in both groups on the fifth and tenth postoperative days.

Thrombospondin-1 prevents excessive ossification in cartilage repair tissue induced by osteogenic protein-1.

This study investigated the effect of thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) on the formation of cartilage repair tissue in combination with stimulation by osteogenic protein-1 (OP-1). In miniature pigs, articular cartilage lesions in the femoral trochlea were treated by the microfracture technique and either received no further treatment (MFX), or were treated by additional application of recombinant osteogenic protein-1 (MFX+OP-1), recombinant TSP-1 (MFX+TSP-1), or a combination of both proteins (MFX+TSP-1+OP-1). Six and 26 weeks after surgery, the repair tissue and the degree of endochondral ossification were assessed by histochemical and immunohistochemical methods detecting collagen types I, II, X, TSP-1, and CD31.