Why home hemodialysis? A systematic "marketing" analysis.

Background: Home hemodialysis (HHD) has met with alternating fortunes. The present revival of interest is due to lower costs and more frequent/efficient treatments. HHD is underdeveloped, and a marketing approach may help in defining development strategies.

Radiograph-based femur morphing method.

Many applications in orthopaedic surgery require the creation of personalised design models that can serve as the basis for navigation in computer aided surgery systems or be used to create a personalised model to perform structural analysis during pre-operative planning or post-operative follow-up. The paper introduces a method for developing a three-dimensional (3D) patient-specific model of a femur bone from an antero-posterior radiograph. A generic femur was employed and was altered on the basis of bone boundaries visible on radiographs.

Radiograph processing for quantitative assessment of bone remodelling.

Video-densitometric analysis has proved useful in the study of bone remodelling, however, for more efficient results, an investigation procedure that enables the comparison of X-rays is needed. In the present research an automated method has been developed which considerably speeds up the entire procedure through the implementation of specially designed C++ software. At present, a sequence of six X-rays can be analyzed in about 1 h irrespective of the number of areas to be investigated, which can be arbitrarily increased (200 or more).

Biodynamic total hip prosthesis.

The biodynamic total hip prosthesis which was devised in 1977-78 and implanted in 1979 was derived from a series of experimental studies and a lengthy clinical experience, both dating back to 1968. This prosthesis introduced two new and original concepts into the field of prosthetic hip surgery: 1) the biequatorial design of the cup; 2) the preservation of the femoral neck. This prosthetic system is based on maximum preservation of the bone stock as well as hip function.