Outcomes and complications of vertebral body tethering by patient gender.

Purpose: Non-fusion surgical options for pediatric scoliosis management such as vertebral body tethering (VBT) offer an alternative to spinal fusion. With this study, we aim to evaluate the postoperative outcomes in boys versus girls who have undergone VBT. Our hypothesis is that girls and boys will have similar outcomes by 2-year follow-up.

Injury Patterns and Associated Demographic Characteristics in Children with a Fracture from Equines: A US National Based Study.

Background: Fractures often occur due to equestrian activities with injury patterns varying by age. The purpose of this study was to investigate in detail fracture patterns and associated demographics in children due to equine activities.

Materials: The US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System was queried for all injuries with the consumer product code 1239 (horseback riding) from 2000 to 2023.

Healthcare disparities in adult and pediatric spinal deformity: a state of the art review.

Purpose: A health disparity refers to a greater disease burden or negative health outcomes influenced by social, economic, and environmental factors. Numerous studies in the surgical literature show that social drivers of health affect health outcomes. Similar disparities may affect treatment and outcomes of spine deformity patients.

Evaluation of an in-house indirect immunoperoxidase test for detection of antibodies against African swine fever virus.

African swine fever (ASF) is a high-consequence transboundary animal disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). Given that vaccines are not widely available, ASFV detection, including by molecular and serologic assays, is paramount to efficacious control and mitigation of ASF. ASFV-specific antibodies can be detected as early as 7-10 d postinfection in infected animals and may persist for several months or longer.

Further validation of 2 nonstructural protein-specific antibody tests for diagnosis and surveillance of foot-and-mouth disease in the United States.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals. FMD poses an economic threat to the livestock industry in the United States. Due to the potential use of vaccines composed of partially purified structural proteins of the FMD virus (FMDV), it is important to test samples from infected and vaccinated animals with a competitive ELISA that detects antibodies against nonstructural proteins (NSPs) of FMDV.