Development and validation of clinical scores for visual outcomes after cataract surgery.

Purpose: To develop and validate a clinical score to predict visual acuity (VA) and functional changes after phacoemulsification on the basis of readily obtainable preoperative history data and patient assessment.

Design: Prospective follow-up study.

Participants: A sample of 5512 patients on waiting lists for phacoemulsification at 17 hospitals in Spain.

Variability in the prioritization of patients for cataract extraction.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare time spent waiting for cataract extraction across various hospitals and to determine if it was influenced by severity of disease or patient characteristics.

Design: Ambispective cohort study. Clinical, sociodemographic, and health-related quality of life data were collected along with time spent on the waiting list.

Solitary osteochondroma long-term follow-up.

A series of 113 osteochondromas were treated in our institution with a long-term follow-up. A retrospective study of the cases of solitary osteochondroma diagnosed and treated in our center from 1970 to 2002 was done. A diagnosis for clinical findings in 73% of the patients was made.

Metal levels in corrosion of spinal implants.

Corrosion affects spinal instrumentations and may cause local and systemic complications. Diagnosis of corrosion is difficult, and nowadays it is performed almost exclusively by the examination of retrieved instrumentations. We conducted this study to determine whether it is possible to detect corrosion by measuring metal levels on patients with posterior instrumented spinal fusion.

Corrosion and late infection causing delayed paraparesis after spinal instrumentation.

A 28-year-old female patient came to our hospital 14 years after surgical correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis with a 316L stainless-steel instrumentation. She presented progressive paraparesis during the last 2 months. Plain radiography, computed tomography scan and computed tomography-scan-guided needle biopsy revealed that a metallotic mass penetrated into the spinal canal, causing compression of the spinal cord at the T5-T6 level.

[Singularization processes: a proposal for continuity between clinical activity and health policy objectives].

Backgrounds And Objectives: In 1996 the Gipuzkoa Territorial Health Agency (Basque Country, Spain) created the Health Plan Service. The aim was to transform the health objectives prioritized by the Health Department into intervention strategies to be incorporated into the local contract services.

Process And Results: One of the procedures the service uses for this purpose, known as <>, involves selecting a process linked to a prioritized health problem, and analyzing and reconstructing it so that the related activity, expected results, financial costs and its impact on the population's health can be identified.

Spondylolisthesis in pre-school children.

Although the natural history of spondylolisthesis is poorly described, we know that it is rare to see the condition in children before they are 5 or 6 years old. Treatment in these patients may be confusing because there is very little literature on the subject, and most papers are case reports. We present a series of eight pre-school patients (mean age 3.

Physical sports activity during leisure time and dietary intake of foods and nutrients in a large Spanish cohort.

This study evaluated the dietary pattern of foods and nutrients according to levels of vigorous leisure time physical activity (PA) assessed at recruitment within the Spanish cohort of the European Prospective Investigation on Cancer (EPIC) study (37,287 healthy volunteers with complete information). We used a validated PA questionnaire (PAQ) to measure the weekly frequency and duration of different kinds of sport activities. For dietary assessment, we used a validated diet history questionnaire that included all items consumed with a frequency of at least twice a month.

Nail-patella syndrome: long term evolution.

Nail-patella syndrome is a rare dysplasia characterized by a typical tetrad: hypoplasic nails, hypoplasic or absent patella, radial head dislocation and iliac horns. We review eight patients, four men and four women, aged from 20 to 70 years. The main complaint at consultation was with their knees due to patellar instability and pain.