Removing a Retained Antibiotic Cement Nail from a Tibia: A Case Report.

Case: We present a case of osteomyelitis after a grade 3A open tibial shaft fracture complicated by incomplete removal of an antibiotic intramedullary rod. The authors are unaware of any reports with this specific complication and provide a novel technique for cement mantle removal involving a distal tibial corticotomy and antegrade cement impaction.

Conclusion: Antibiotic nails can successfully treat intramedullary osteomyelitis, but surgeons may encounter unexpected issues due to custom, intraoperative fabrication.

Clinical correlates of atypical femoral fracture.

Background: Reports of atypical femur fracture in bisphosphonate-exposed women have prompted interest in characterizing the clinical profiles of these patients.

Methods: Among women age ≥60 years with hip or femur fracture during 2007-2008, we identified 79 with low-trauma subtrochanteric or femoral shaft fracture. Radiographic images were reviewed to assign fracture pattern and distinguish atypical femur fracture from non-atypical femur fracture.

A prospective cohort analysis of adjacent vertebral body bone mineral density in lumbar surgery patients with or without instrumented posterolateral fusion: a 9- to 12-year follow-up.

Study Design: A prospective, cohort study of 11 patients who underwent either a posterior lumbar spinal fusion with instrumentation (n = 7) or a lumbar laminotomy and discectomy alone (n = 4) and who were evaluated by dual energy radiograph absorptiometry (DEXA) to determine bone mineral density (BMD) at the adjacent three cephalad vertebral levels.

Objectives: To determine long-term BMD changes that occur at the adjacent three levels above an instrumented posterolateral lumbar fusion or an isolated laminotomy and lumbar discectomy.

Summary Of Background Data: No long-term prospective study has evaluated the affects of instrumented lumbar fusions on bone remodeling at adjacent vertebral levels.