Ulnar nerve component to innervation of thumb carpometacarpal joint.

Purpose: Thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) joint arthritis is one of the most common problems addressed by hand surgeons. The gold standard of treatment for thumb CMC joint arthritis is trapeziectomy, ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition. Denervation of the thumb CMC joint is not currently used to treat arthritis in this joint due to the failure of the procedure to yield significant symptomatic relief.

Quantitative muscle hardness as a noninvasive means for detecting patients at risk of compartment syndromes.

The purpose of this project was to study the efficacy of quantitative muscle hardness (QH) curve analysis for noninvasive measurement of muscle compartment interstitial pressure (IMP), and to eliminate the need for a comparison normal QH measurement to determine a pathologic reading. Elevation of IMP may lead to limb compartment syndrome, which may result in irreversible dysfunction, chronic pain and contracture. Two studies were performed by two separate independent examiners on male volunteers, where IMP measurements and QH curves were obtained.

A simple method for fashioning an antibiotic cement-coated interlocking intramedullary nail.

Acute or chronic infection in the presence of nonunited fracture or chronic nonunion often necessitates staged surgical treatment. Treatment typically involves removal of hardware, débridement of infected tissue, use of local antibiotic delivery, and a long-term course of intravenous antibiotics. Several methods of local antibiotic delivery using antibiotic-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) have been commonly used, including commercial or hand-fashioned PMMA beads, antibiotic spacers, and antibiotic PMMA-coated guide rods.

Measurement of a posterior occipitocervical fusion angle.

Study Design: A method for evaluating occipitocervical neutral position is described.

Objective: To describe and measure a posterior occipitocervical angle (POCA) in normal subjects that can be used to guide contouring of fusion implants to achieve occipitocervical neutral fusion and for use in standardized testing of occipitocervical constructs.

Summary Of Background Data: The goal of occipitocervical fusion is to fuse the head in an ideal functional position.

Catheter-mediated subselective intracoronary gene delivery to the rabbit heart: introduction of a novel method.

Background: Recent studies suggest that gene therapy using replication-deficient adenoviruses will benefit treatment of cardiovascular diseases including heart failure. A persistent hurdle is the effective and reproducible delivery of a transgene to the myocardium with minimal iatrogenic morbidity. In this study, we sought to design a relatively non-invasive percutaneous gene delivery system that would maximize cardiac transgene expression and minimize mortality after intracoronary adenovirus injection.

Cardioprotective effects of erythropoietin in the reperfused ischemic heart: a potential role for cardiac fibroblasts.

Erythropoietin has recently been shown to have effects beyond hematopoiesis such as prevention of neuronal and cardiac apoptosis secondary to ischemia. In this study, we evaluated the in vivo protective potential of erythropoietin in the reperfused rabbit heart following ventricular ischemia. We show that "preconditioning" with erythropoietin activates cell survival pathways in myocardial tissue in vivo and adult rabbit cardiac fibroblasts in vitro.

A novel protective effect of erythropoietin in the infarcted heart.

Erythropoietin (EPO) has been shown to protect neurons from ischemic stroke, but can also increase thrombotic events and mortality rates in patients with ischemic heart disease. We reasoned that benefits of EPO might be offset by increases in hematocrit and evaluated the direct effects of EPO in the ischemic heart. We show that preconditioning with EPO protects H9c2 myoblasts in vitro and cardiomyocytes in vivo against ischemic injury.