Stress hyperglycaemia is common in critical illness. We have previously observed that increasing severity of respiratory failure in patients with severe COVID-19 is associated with increased insulin demand. Given previously reported direct effects of hypoxia on insulin action, we reasoned that rapid improvements in oxygenation following prone positioning may improve insulin sensitivity and increase risk of hypoglycaemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective To compare the quality of responses from three chatbots (ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and AskOE) across various orthopaedic surgery therapeutic treatment questions. Design We identified a series of treatment-related questions across a range of subspecialties in orthopaedic surgery. Questions were "identically" entered into one of three chatbots (ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and AskOE) and reviewed using a standardized rubric.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrescription opioids, particularly for treating musculoskeletal pain, are a significant contributor to the opioid epidemic in North America. There is also evidence to suggest that chronic use of opioids is associated with poor outcomes after orthopedic surgery. However, whether this association is relevant in foot and ankle surgery is still unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe treatment of Achilles tendon rupture has recently seen a shift toward non-operative management, as supported by the literature, yet many surgeons continue to treat these injuries operatively. The evidence clearly supports non-operative management of these injuries except for Achilles insertional tears and for certain patient groups, such as athletic patients, for whom further research is warranted. This nonadherence to evidence-based treatment may be explained by patient preference, surgeon subspecialty, surgeon era of practice or other variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: Although developing PROMs is arduous and measuring their psychometric characteristics is even more so, the number of available PROMs has grown dramatically in the foot and ankle community over the past few years. The psychometric properties of foot and ankle PROMs vary considerably, which could explain why there are so many of them used in the literature. This review aims to shed light on the most commonly used PROMs in foot and ankle literature and assess the evidence supporting their use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Open fractures represent a major source of morbidity. Surgical site infections (SSIs) after open fractures are associated with a high rate of reoperations and hospitalizations, which are associated with a lower health-related quality of life. Early antibiotic delivery, typically chosen through an assessment of the size and contamination of the wound, has been shown to be an effective technique to reduce the risk of SSI in open fractures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To evaluate the impact of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) on the odds of having deep infections and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) following open fractures.
Methods: Patients from the Fluid Lavage in Open Fracture Wounds (FLOW) trial with Gustilo-Anderson grade II or III open fractures within the lower limb were included in this secondary analysis. Using mixed effects logistic regression, we assessed the impact of NPWT on deep wound infection requiring surgical intervention within 12 months post-injury.
Background: Orthopaedic injuries may lead to an increased incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) during recovery as people dependent on others' help are at a higher risk for abuse. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding of how IPV affects injury recovery. In women being treated for an orthopaedic injury, we aimed to determine the number of new IPV disclosures in the 12 months after an injury and to explore the impact of IPV on recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Severe COVID-19 has been anecdotally associated with high insulin requirements. It has been proposed that this may be driven by a direct diabetogenic effect of the virus that is unique to SARS-CoV-2, but evidence to support this is limited. To explore this, we compared insulin requirements in patients with severe COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 viral pneumonitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Despite long-standing dogma, a clear relationship between the timing of surgical irrigation and debridement (I&D) and the development of subsequent deep infection has not been established in the literature. Traditionally, I&D of an open fracture has been recommended within six hours of injury based on animal studies from the 1970s, however the clinical basis for this remains unclear. Using data from a multicentre randomized controlled trial of 2,447 open fracture patients, the primary objective of this secondary analysis is to determine if a relationship exists between timing of wound I&D (within six hours of injury vs beyond six hours) and subsequent reoperation rate for infection or healing complications within one year for patients with open limb fractures requiring surgical treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Acad Orthop Surg Glob Res Rev
December 2020
Introduction: Open fractures are associated with a high risk of infection. The prevention of infection is the single most important goal, influencing perioperative care of patients with open fractures. Using data from 2,500 participants with open fracture wounds enrolled in the Fluid Lavage of Open Wounds trial, we conducted a multivariable analysis to determine the factors that are associated with infections 12 months postfracture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We sought to evaluate whether tourniquet use, with the resultant ischemia and reperfusion, during surgical treatment of an open lower-extremity fracture was associated with an increased risk of complications.
Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of 1,351 patients who had an open lower-extremity fracture at or distal to the proximal aspect of the tibia and who participated in the FLOW (Fluid Lavage of Open Wounds) trial. The independent variable was intraoperative tourniquet use, and the primary outcome measures were adjudicated unplanned reoperation within 1 year of the injury and adjudicated nonoperative wound complications.
Background: Preoperative antiseptic skin solutions are used prior to most surgical procedures; however, there is no definitive research comparing infection-related outcomes following use of the various solutions available to orthopedic trauma surgeons. The objective of this pilot study was to test the feasibility of a cluster randomized crossover trial that assesses the comparative effectiveness of a 10% povidone-iodine solution versus a 4% chlorhexidine gluconate solution for the management of open fractures.
Methods: Two orthopedic trauma centers participated in this pilot study.
Ankle fractures are the fourth most common fracture requiring surgical management. The deltoid ligament is a primary ankle stabilizer against valgus forces. It is frequently ruptured in ankle fractures; however, there is currently no consensus regarding repair.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Many studies report on the incidence or prevalence of fracture-related surgical site infections (SSIs) after open fractures; however, few studies report on their timing and management outcomes. To address this gap, we used data from the Fluid Lavage of Open Wounds trial to determine timing of diagnosis, management, and resolution of SSIs.
Methods: All participants included in this analysis had an SSI after an open fracture.
Objectives Nonunions of tibial shaft fractures have profound implications on patient quality of life and are associated with physical and mental suffering. Radiographic Union Score for Tibia Fractures (RUST) may serve as an important prognostic tool for identifying patients at a high risk of nonunion. Design We used data from the Study to Prospectively Evaluate Reamed Intramedullary Nails in Patients with Tibial Fractures (SPRINT) and Fluid Lavage of Open Wounds (FLOW) trials to explore the association of three-month RUST scores with nonunion in patients with tibial shaft fractures treated with intramedullary nailing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although many studies report the incidence and prevalence of surgical site infections (SSIs) after open fractures, there is limited information on the treatment and subsequent outcomes of superficial SSIs in patients with open fractures. Additionally, clinical studies describing the factors that are associated with persistent infection after nonoperative treatment with antibiotics for patients with superficial SSIs are lacking.
Questions/purposes: Therefore, we asked: (1) What proportion of patients with superficial SSIs after open fracture treatment developed persistent infection after nonoperative treatment (that is, treatment with antibiotics alone)? (2) What risk factors are associated with SSIs that do not resolve with nonoperative (antibiotic) treatment? As a secondary objective, we planned to analyze the microbiological information about participants wound cultures, when these were available, and the proportion of positive cultures for patients whose SSIs were not resolved by antibiotics alone.
Background Nonunions of tibial shaft fractures have devastating physical and psychological consequences for patients. It remains unknown if early functional status can identify patients at risk for nonunion. Questions/Purposes To determine if functional status at three months after surgery, as measured by either the short form 36 (SF-36) or the short form 12 (SF-12) health survey physical component summary (SF-12 PCS) score, can serve as a prognostic indicator for nonunion at one year in patients with fractures of the tibial shaft.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: The risk of developing a surgical site infection after extremity fracture repair is nearly 5 times greater than in most elective orthopedic surgical procedures. For all surgical procedures, it is standard practice to prepare the operative site with an antiseptic solution; however, there is limited evidence to guide the choice of solution used for orthopedic fracture repair.
Objective: To compare the effectiveness of iodophor vs chlorhexidine solutions to reduce surgical site infections and unplanned fracture-related reoperations for patients who underwent fracture repair.
Although there is growing evidence supporting posterior-based surgical approaches to open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) of malleolar fractures, the lateral approach still remains the standard of care for this injury. The purpose of this review was to integrate the results of several studies investigating outcomes following posterior-based approaches to the ORIF of malleolar fractures. The literature search was undertaken using PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Embase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith promising technological advances, ankle arthroplasty has become an alternative to arthrodesis, traditionally the gold standard, for treating end-stage ankle arthritis. We collected knowledge and perceptions on both procedures to determine the need for a patient decision aid for these patients by administering a cross-sectional survey to 103 orthopaedic surgeons. Respondents were predominantly male and 41 to 50 years old.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine the association between prophylactic antibiotic duration after the definitive wound closure of an open fracture and deep surgical site infection (SSI).
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: 41 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and India.