Surgical helmets can be converted into efficient disinfectable powered air-purifying respirators.

Background: Filtering facepiece respirators often fail to provide sufficient protection due to a poor fit. Powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) are not designed for healthcare personnel, and are challenging to disinfect. Surgical helmets (SH) are available in many United States hospitals but do not provide respiratory protection.

Does a surgical helmet provide protection against aerosol transmitted disease?

Background and purpose - The COVID-19 pandemic caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2 has led to a global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). Various alternatives to ordinary PPE have been suggested to reduce transmission, which is primarily through droplets and aerosols. For many years orthopedic surgeons have been using surgical helmets as personal protection against blood-borne pathogens during arthroplasty surgery.

Intra-Articular Osteotomy of the Distal Radius with the Use of Inexpensive In-House 3D Printed Surgical Guides and Arthroscopy: A Case Report.

Case: An 18-year-old man complained about persistent wrist pain and functional impairment due to intra-articular malunion, 1 year after volar plating of a distal radius fracture. We designed and produced patient-specific surgical guides (PSSGs) in-house with a benchtop three-dimensional printer to perform an arthroscopy-assisted intra-articular osteotomy of the radial column without dorsal arthrotomy. The procedure was performed without complications.

Cross-Table Lateral Radiographs Accurately Predict Displacement in Valgus-Impacted Femoral Neck Fractures.

Background: Femoral neck fractures are classified as nondisplaced (Garden types I and II) or displaced (Garden types III and IV) on the basis of anteroposterior radiographs. Cross-table lateral radiographs are important in the assessment of Garden type-I and II fractures as posterior tilt of the femoral head may influence treatment results. A posterior tilt of >20° has been associated with an increased risk of treatment failure after internal fixation, although the precision of these measurements has not been validated.

Bilateral symmetrical comparison of the proximal femur using 3D-CT models.

Purpose: Superimposed three-dimensional (3D)-models obtained from CT-images have been used to evaluate displacement of femoral neck fractures, but this method assumes symmetrical anatomy of normal femurs. The present study aimed to compare the spatial orientation of the left and right proximal femur, thus establishing if 3D models can be used as a reference standard for the evaluation of fracture displacement.

Methods: We generated 3D-CT-models of 20 patients with no skeletal pathology of the proximal femurs.