Does adding antibiotics to cement reduce the need for early revision in total knee arthroplasty?

Background: There is considerable debate about whether antibiotic-loaded bone cement should be used for fixation of TKAs. While antibiotics offer the theoretical benefit of lowering early revision due to infection, they may weaken the cement and thus increase the likelihood of aseptic loosening, perhaps resulting in a higher revision rate.

Questions/purposes: We (1) compared the frequency of early knee revision arthroplasty in patients treated with antibiotic-loaded or non-antibiotic-loaded cement for initial fixation, (2) determined effects of age, sex, comorbidities, and surgeons' antibiotic-loaded cement usage patterns on revision rate, and (3) compared causes of revision (aseptic or septic) between groups.

Canadian benchmarks in trauma.

Background: Benchmarks are used in trauma care for program evaluation, quality improvement, and research. National outcome benchmarks relevant to the Canadian trauma population need to be defined for evaluation of trauma care in Canada. The purpose of this study was to derive survival probabilities associated with trauma diagnoses using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes.

Obesity and joint replacement surgery in Canada: findings from the Canadian Joint Replacement Registry (CJRR).

Obesity has been strongly implicated as a risk factor for knee osteoarthritis and, in some studies, for osteoarthritis of the hip. Osteoarthritis is the most commonly reported diagnosis for joint replacement patients. In this study, we conducted analyses based on data from the Canadian Joint Replacement Registry (CJRR) to estimate the relationships between overweight and obesity and rates of joint replacement surgery in Canada.

Dimensions underlying legislator support for tobacco control policies.

Objective: To propose and test a new classification system for characterising legislator support for various tobacco control policies.

Design: Cross sectional study.

Subjects: Federal and provincial legislators in Canada serving as of October 1996 who participated in the Canadian Legislator Study (n = 553; response rate 54%).

Support for tobacco control policies: how congruent are the attitudes of legislators and the public?

Objectives: To examine the congruence in perceptions and attitudes of legislators and the public regarding tobacco and tobacco control policies.

Methods: Two cross-sectional surveys were used, one of elected federal and provincial legislators and one of adult residents in Ontario, Canada. Perceptions and attitudes were analyzed as dependent variables using multiple logistic regression, and adjusted for age, sex, educational attainment, and smoking status.