Coccygectomy for intractable coccygodynia.

Background: Coccygectomy is an uncommon procedure that many surgeons are reluctant to perform due to its proximity to the anus and the risk of rectal perforation and infection.

Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and outcome of coccygectomy.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the operative results in nine patients (seven females and two males) who underwent coccygectomy for coccygodynia in the last 5 years following failure of conservative treatment.

Surgical treatment of posttraumatic radioulnar synostosis in children.

The authors describe two children who underwent surgical treatment of radioulnar synostosis. One case involved simple excision; the other, excision and interposition of Gore-Tex vascular graft material. In a review of the literature, no other report of the latter type of surgical treatment was found.

Microscopic alterations in the physis of long bones in response to hind limb immobilization in the rat.

Background: The growth plate increases its activity in response to exercise. Likewise, decreased physical activity exerts a negative effect on bone growth and development, leading to rarefaction of the subepiphyseal bone. Limb immobilization inhibits the growth plate's activity, indirectly shown by a recorded arrest in longitudinal growth of the long bones.

The effect of single hind-limb immobilization on the contralateral limb in the rat: a morphometric and biochemical study.

Disuse atrophy has been the subject of research studies that make the use of an animal model in which single-limb immobilization induces atrophic changes in the immobilized limb. The effect upon the nonimmobilized contralateral limb is, however, still unclear, and findings in the literature are inconclusive. We therefore performed a multidisciplinary study to clear this issue.

Biochemical alterations secondary to disuse atrophy in the rat's serum and limb tissues.

Disuse atrophy has been the subject of research studies of an animal model in which single-limb immobilization induces atrophic changes in the immobilized limb. These reveal systemic changes in the experimental animals that go far beyond the local response expected in that situation and are not fully understood as yet. We therefore performed a biochemical study on the effect of hind-limb immobilization on the serum and tissues of rats.