Return to Sport After ACL Reconstruction With Meniscal Allograft Transplantation Versus Isolated ACL Reconstruction: A Matched-Cohort Study.

Background: Meniscal allograft transplantation (MAT) is indicated in the setting of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction to restore proper arthrokinematics and load distribution for the meniscus-deficient knee. Objective outcomes after ACL reconstruction with concomitant MAT in athletic populations are scarcely reported and highly variable.

Purpose: To compare patient outcomes using an objective functional performance battery, self-reported outcome measures, and return-to-sport rates between individuals undergoing ACL reconstruction with concomitant MAT and a matched group undergoing isolated ACL reconstruction.

Epidemiologic patterns of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis detection and treatment in new york state.

The purpose of this study is to examine the epidemiologic trends of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) detection and treatment in New York State (NYS), including disparities in access. The New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database was reviewed to identify patients who underwent treatment for, or were diagnosed with, AIS from 2008 to 2016. Age determined adolescence; and the surgery date, 3-digit zip code, sex, race, insurance status, institution and surgeon license number were recorded to identify such trends.

The Flaw in Formalist Accounts of Circumvention Tourism.

Circumvention tourism is a form of medical tourism that occurs when individuals travel abroad to receive treatments that are a prohibited in their home county but permitted in a destination country. This paper explores this question: Guido Pennings, Richard Huxtable, and I. Glenn Cohen have all argued for what I call "formalist accounts" of circumvention tourism.

Procreative responsibilities and the parental obligation objection.

This essay presents a challenge to the parental obligation objection. This objection is usually made by abortion opponents who argue that because child support laws hold men postnatally responsible for children they helped bring into existence (even when they did not intend to become parents), women too have prenatal parental responsibilities that should prevent them from ending pregnancies through abortions. My essay draws on recent publications in bioethics that distinguish procreative from parental responsibilities.

The ethical indefensibility of heartbeat bills.

Recently, several states in the United States have sought to adopt more restrictive abortion policies. Most have tried to enact "heartbeat bills" that prohibit most abortions once a fetal heartbeat becomes detectable. This article explores this question: Are heartbeat bills ethically defensible? I argue that they are not.

Why Inconsistency Arguments Matter.

Abortion opponents are sometimes accused of having inconsistent beliefs, actions, and/or priorities. If they were consistent, they would regard spontaneous abortions to be a greater moral tragedy, or they would adopt more frozen in vitro fertilization embryos, or they would support more robust social welfare programmes for children and single parents, or so on and so forth. Nicholas Colgrove, Bruce Blackshaw, and Daniel Rodger have recently argued that such inconsistency arguments 'fail en masse.

Using Stereochemistry to Control Mechanical Properties in Thiol-Yne Click-Hydrogels.

The stereochemistry of polymers has a profound impact on their mechanical properties. While this has been observed in thermoplastics, studies on how stereochemistry affects the bulk properties of swollen networks, such as hydrogels, are limited. Typically, changing the stiffness of a hydrogel is achieved at the cost of changing another parameter, that in turn affects the physical properties of the material and ultimately influences the cellular response.

Using Stereochemistry to Control Mechanical Properties in Thiol-Yne Click-Hydrogels.

The stereochemistry of polymers has a profound impact on their mechanical properties. While this has been observed in thermoplastics, studies on how stereochemistry affects the bulk properties of swollen networks, such as hydrogels, are limited. Typically, changing the stiffness of a hydrogel is achieved at the cost of changing another parameter, that in turn affects the physical properties of the material and ultimately influences the cellular response.

Hydrogen sulfide exposure reduces thermal set point in zebrafish.

Behavioural flexibility allows ectotherms to exploit the environment to govern their metabolic physiology, including in response to environmental stress. Hydrogen sulfide (HS) is a widespread environmental toxin that can lethally inhibit metabolism. However, HS can also alter behaviour and physiology, including a hypothesized induction of hibernation-like states characterized by downward shifts of the innate thermal set point (anapyrexia).

Early Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Recurrence in the Posttransplant Population: A Comparison of RETREAT and Cleveland Clinic Florida Scoring System.

Background: Liver transplantation (LT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is curative in most cases; however, recurrence is observed in some patients. The Risk Estimation of Tumor Recurrence After Transplant (RETREAT) score is an externally validated scoring system for prediction of post-LT HCC recurrence. The Cleveland Clinic Florida Scoring System (CCFSS) is a potential new scoring system for prediction of HCC recurrence.

Robust alginate/hyaluronic acid thiol-yne click-hydrogel scaffolds with superior mechanical performance and stability for load-bearing soft tissue engineering.

Hydrogels based on hyaluronic acid (HA) exhibit great potential as tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds as a consequence of their unique biological features. Herein, we examine how the advantages of two natural polymers (i.e.

Hepatitis C Virus NAT-Positive Solid Organ Allografts Transplanted Into Hepatitis C Virus-Negative Recipients: A Real-World Experience.

Background And Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-viremic organs are underutilized, and there is limited real-world experience on the transplantation of HCV-viremic solid organs into recipients who are HCV negative.

Approach And Results: Patients listed or being evaluated for solid organ transplant after January 26, 2018, were educated and consented by protocol on the transplantation of HCV-viremic organs. All recipients were HCV nucleic acid test and anti-HCV antibody negative at the time of transplant and received an HCV-viremic organ.

Self-healing, stretchable and robust interpenetrating network hydrogels.

A self-healable stretchable hydrogel system that can be readily synthesized while also possessing robust compressive strength has immense potential for regenerative medicine. Herein, we have explored the addition of commercially available unfunctionalized polysaccharides as a route to synthesize self-healing, stretchable poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) interpenetrating networks (IPNs) as extracellular matrix (ECM) mimics. The introduction of self-healing and stretchable properties has been achieved while maintaining the robust mechanical strength of the orginal, single network PEG-only hydrogels (ultimate compressive stress up to 2.

An immortalised mesenchymal stem cell line maintains mechano-responsive behaviour and can be used as a reporter of substrate stiffness.

The mechanical environment can influence cell behaviour, including changes to transcriptional and proteomic regulation, morphology and, in the case of stem cells, commitment to lineage. However, current tools for characterizing substrates' mechanical properties, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), often do not fully recapitulate the length and time scales over which cells 'feel' substrates. Here, we show that an immortalised, clonal line of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) maintains the responsiveness to substrate mechanics observed in primary cells, and can be used as a reporter of stiffness.

Biogelx: Cell Culture on Self-Assembling Peptide Gels.

Aromatic peptide amphiphiles can form self-supporting nanostructured hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties and chemical compositions. These hydrogels are increasingly applied in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) cell culture, where there is a rapidly growing need to store, grow, proliferate, and manipulate naturally derived cells within a hydrated, 3D matrix. Biogelx Limited is a biomaterials company, created to commercialize these bio-inspired hydrogels to cell biologists for a range of cell culture applications.

Selecting for Disabilities: Selection Versus Modification.

This essay considers one argument used to defend parents who use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select for deafness and other disabilities. Some bioethicists have argued that a distinction should be drawn between genetically modifying embryos to possess disabilities and using PGD to select embryos that already present markers of them, and that the former is unethical because it inflicts avoidable harms onto the resulting children, whereas the latter is permissible because it allows children with potentially impaired abilities to exist. This essay raises doubts about whether a meaningful moral distinction can be drawn between modification and selection.

Total Elbow Arthroplasty in the United States: Evaluation of Cost, Patient Demographics, and Complication Rates.

Total elbow arthroplasty (TEA) is utilized in the treatment of rheumatoid and post-traumatic elbow arthritis. TEA is a relatively low volume surgery in comparison to other types of arthroplasty and therefore little is known about current surgical utilization, patient demographics and complication rates in the United States. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the current practice trends and associated in-patient complications of TEA at academic centers in the United States.

In-Patient Trends and Complications After Total Ankle Arthroplasty in the United States.

The number of total ankle arthroplasties (TAAs) performed annually in the United States has increased. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in-patient demographics, complications, and readmission rates of patients after TAA at academic medical centers in the United States. The University HealthSystems Consortium administrative database was searched for patients who underwent TAA in 2007 to 2011.

Who Gets Early Tracheostomy?: Evidence of Unequal Treatment at 185 Academic Medical Centers.

Background: Although the benefits of early tracheostomy in patients dependent on ventilators are well established, the reasons for variation in time from intubation to tracheostomy remain unclear. We identified clinical and demographic disparities in time to tracheostomy.

Methods: We performed a level 3 retrospective prognostic study by querying the University HealthSystem Consortium (2007-2010) for adult patients receiving a tracheostomy after initial intubation.

Is 9 louder than 1? Audiovisual cross-modal interactions between number magnitude and judged sound loudness.

The cross-modal impact of number magnitude (i.e. Arabic digits) on perceived sound loudness was examined.

It's All About Location, Location, Location: A New Perspective on Trauma Transport.

Objective: To determine the effect of aeromedical transport on trauma mortality when accounting for geographic factors.

Background: The existing literature on the mortality benefit of aeromedical transport on trauma mortality is controversial. Studies examining patient and injury characteristics find higher mortality, whereas studies measuring injury severity find a protective effect.

Independent effect of black recipient race on short-term outcomes after liver transplantation.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated worse graft and patient survival for black patients after liver transplantation (LT), but these studies have not accounted properly for recipient, donor, center, or geographic effects. In this study, we evaluated the effect of candidate race on patient and graft survival after LT.

Methods: Using a novel linkage of the databases of the University Health System Consortium and the US Census and Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, we identified 12,445 patients (43.

Factors related to readmission after major elective surgery.

Background: Hospital readmissions have received increased scrutiny as a marker for excessive resource utilization and also quality care.

Aim: To identify the rate of and risk factors for hospital readmission after major surgery at academic medical centers.

Methods: Using the University Health Consortium Clinical Database, 30-day readmission rates in all adult patients undergoing colectomy (n = 103,129), lung resection (n = 73,558), gastric bypass (n = 62,010) or abdominal aortic surgery (n = 17,997) from 2009 to 2012 were identified.

Neighborhood level effects of socioeconomic status on liver transplant selection and recipient survival.

Background & Aims: Previous studies have reported that patients of higher socioeconomic status (SES) have increased access to liver transplantation and reduced waitlist mortality than patients of lower SES. However, little is known about the association between SES and outcomes after liver transplantation.

Methods: By using a link between the University HealthSystem Consortium and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients databases, we identified 12,445 patients who underwent liver transplantation from 2007 through 2011.