Smoking Is Not an Independent Risk Factor for Increased Opioid Consumption in Patients Being Treated for Ankle Fractures.

Using narcotics for pain management is an integral part of orthopaedic surgery, especially after traumatic injuries such as ankle fractures. Although narcotics are often necessary for adequate pain control, prolonged duration of opioid treatment is becoming more common, and the detrimental effects of opioid use are well known. To treat this epidemic, we need to better understand the factors that put patients at risk for increased narcotic requirements and potential opioid misuse after orthopaedic injuries.

Utility of Ottawa Ankle Rules in an Aging Population: Evidence for Addition of an Age Criterion.

The Ottawa ankle rules (OAR) indicate that any patient with the inability to ambulate up to four steps or with tenderness at either malleoli should receive diagnostic imaging for an acute ankle injury. Current trends indicate that health care providers tend to order more images in practice than necessary according to OAR. The purpose of this study is to analyze OAR in geriatric versus nongeriatric patients.

Increased opioid consumption in diabetics with operative ankle fractures: a retrospective case-control study.

Introduction: Opioids are commonly used for post-operative pain control. It is known that diabetic patients with ankle fractures will experience prolonged healing, higher risk of hardware failure, and an increased risk of infection. However, the opioid requirements amongst this patient cohort have not been previously evaluated.

Xenograft scaffold full-wrap reinforcement of Krackow achilles tendon repair.

Standard 4-strand repair of Achilles tendon tears is effective, but additional strength may be desirable in patients who are compromised or those with reruptures. Use of a xenograft scaffold has not been investigated biomechanically in Achilles tendon repair. This study compared stiffness, gap formation, and ultimate load to failure with Krackow repair vs Krackow repair augmented with xenograft scaffold in 6 matched pairs of fresh-frozen human lower extremities.

Biological and environmental contributions to adaptive behavior in fragile X syndrome.

Fragile X syndrome is the most common cause of inherited developmental disability. The purpose of the present study is to understand how both biological and environmental influences affect the development of adaptive behavior in children with fragile X. In-home assessments were conducted on 120 children (80 boys and 40 girls) with the fragile X full mutation and their unaffected siblings (58 boys and 62 girls).

Genetic and environmental influences on the cognitive outcomes of children with fragile X syndrome.

Objective: To measure the genetic and environmental factors influencing the cognitive outcomes in children with fragile X, a common genetic disorder causing cognitive impairments.

Method: In-home evaluations were conducted on 120 children (80 boys and 40 girls) with the fragile X full mutation and their unaffected siblings.

Results: Multiple regression analyses show that the cognitive outcomes for girls with fragile X are most strongly predicted by the mean IQ of their parents, with a small proportion of the variance accounted for by the quality of their home environment.