Objective: Nowadays, people tend to spend more time in the closed areas and benefit less from sunlight. In this study, we examined the results of vitamin D measurements of athletes from different disciplines in different months and aimed to determine if the synthesis of vitamin D decreases or not according to exercise environment and month. Methods: The study was conducted in participants aged 5–52 years. A total of 555 elite-level sportsmen who were admitted to our Sports Medicine Clinic in the study participated in this study. Indoor and outdoor environmental and seasonal effects on the measurements in different months were statistically evaluated. Independent-samples test and definitive statistics were used for statistical analyses and a p-value less than 0.05 has been considered significant. Results: The study group consisted of 229 male and 326 female athletes. The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was observed; 120 (21.6%) athletes have severe serum vitamin D deficiency (<11–20 ng/mL). Vitamin D levels were not significantly different from outdoor athletes (393; 70.8%). Winter measurements of vitamin D levels were significantly lower than those measured in autumn (p = 0.000). Conclusion: Increasing vitamin D levels are very important especially in participating athletes and additional supplements are recommended whenever necessary. Gender and indoor/outdoor sports participation showed no statistically significant outcomes on vitamin D levels. However, winter season had a negative effect on vitamin D levels. Therefore, adequate precautions should be taken to increase vitamin D, especially during winter, to maintain the best performance of the athletes.

To investigate the biomechanical, histological, and radiological effects of sildenafil and pentoxifylline on femoral fracture healing in rats. Forty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups equally according to the pharmacological agents to be investigated. Femoral shaft fractures were formed in the left side. Group 1 (control group), group 2, and group 3 were administered with saline, sildenafil, and pentoxifylline during the fracture healing process, respectively. Eight rats from each group were euthanized on days 15 and 30. X-ray images of the rats were taken after euthanasia for radiographical examination. Femur samples were subjected to histopathological and biomechanical (three-point bending) examinations. Radiologically, no difference between the Goldberg scores of the groups was found for day 15 (p > 0.05), while higher Goldberg scores were obtained from group 2 than that of group 1 (p > 0.05) and group 3 (p < 0.05) for day 30. In the biomechanical analysis, higher mean breaking forces were found both for day 15 and day 30 from group 2 than those obtained from group 1 (for day 15 p > 0.05 and day 30 p > 0.05) and group 3 (for day 15 p < 0.05 and day 30 p < 0.01). Higher mean absorbed energy values were obtained from group 2 than those obtained from group 1 (for day 15 p > 0.05 and day 30 p < 0.05) and group 3 (for day 15 p < 0.01 and day 30 p < 0.01). A significant difference was not found between the histological scores of all groups (p > 0.05) for day 15, while the histological score of group 1 on day 30 was found to be significantly lower than that of sildenafil and pentoxifylline groups (p < 0.05). Sildenafil had a positive effect on fracture healing, while pentoxifylline did not provide consistent positive effect.

Tibia plateau fracture (TPF) treatment aims at achieving a stable, aligned, mobile, painless knee and preventing post-traumatic osteoarthritis. To achieve this goal, surgeons consider criteria such as patients' characteristics, severity, risk of complications, fracture displacement/depression, degree of soft tissue injury. However, body mass index (BMI) is not considered as a risk factor in literature. Our study was conducted to find out any possible correlation between BMI and functional scores or radiological score separately. Retrospective analysis of case series between 2011 and 2014 was done on the database of a tertiary hospital in Istanbul. There were 67 TPF patients (54 males, 13 females) in the study. Relationship between BMI and functional knee scores or radiological score was compared statistically. Closed fractures with both high-energy and low-energy injury were included in the study. Patients with open fracture, multi-trauma presence, meniscus and/or ligamentous injury, increased co-morbidity, inadequate records (25 cases in all) were excluded. Surgery type, Schatzker classification, injury side, trauma energy, and gender were considered as possible risk factors. Binary regression analysis was done for possible factors affecting functional knee scores and radiologic score. Model summary calculations were done as Nagelkerke R2 test for Knee Society score, Lysholm knee score, and Ahlback and Rydberg radiologic scores, which were 0.648, 0.831, and 0.327 respectively. Homer-Lemeshow test values were 0.976, 0.998, and 0.362, respectively. There is negative correlation between BMI and both knee function scores. There is no correlation between BMI and radiologic score. An increase in BMI has a negative effect on functional knee scores after surgical treatment of TPFs. Therefore, BMI should be considered as a risk factor for surgical treatment of TPFs.

Int J Shoulder Surg, International Journal of Shoulder Surgery is an open-access, peer-reviewed online publication that focuses on the basic science, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of disorders of the shoulder girdle.

Purpose: Primary bone tumors of the fibula are rare. There are only a few studies reporting the incidence, histologic, and anatomic distribution of primary fibula tumors. This study aimed to comprehensively report the incidence, presenting symptoms, and histologic tumor types with the anatomic and histologic distribution of primary bone tumors of the fibula. Methods: Between January 1983 and December 2017, 6457 primary bone tumors and tumor-like lesions were diagnosed and treated in our musculoskeletal oncology surgery clinic. Of these, 264 (4.08%) were primary bone tumors and tumor-like lesions of the fibula. We retrospectively reviewed patients’ records, histopathology records, and radiologic images regarding age, gender, anatomic localization, histopathologic diagnosis, and treatment methods. Results: There were 209 (79.2%) benign and 55 (20.8%) malignant lesions. The most common benign and malignant tumors were osteochondroma (51 of 209; 24.4%) and chondrosarcoma (16 of 55; 29.1%). The proximal fibula was the most common location for both benign and malignant tumors (141 of 209; 67.5% and 45 of 55; 81.8%, respectively), followed by the distal fibula (52 of 209; 24.9% and 8 of 55; 14.5%, respectively) and the diaphysis (17 of 209; 8.14% and 2 of 55; 3.64%, respectively). Conclusion: The incidence of primary bone tumors is higher than that reported in previous studies. Benign lesions constitute the majority of cases. One-fifth of all cases are malignant. The most common anatomic site involving the primary fibula tumors is the proximal fibula. Level of evidence: III.

Objective: To assess the histopathologic and biomechanical effects of hyaluronic acid (HA) and high-dose vitamin C (VC) on rat Achilles tendon healing. Methods: Forty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to HA and VC and control groups with equal numbers. Each group was further divided into two subgroups to be sacrificed on Day 15 (n=8) and Day 30 (n=8). The Achilles tendons were cut and repaired. While the control rats remained untreated, HA and VC were administered after repair. The repaired tendons were removed for biomechanical and histopathologic analyses. In the biomechanical tests, the tendons were stretched to failure and maximum forces were measured. For histopathologic examination, the specimens were interpreted semiquantitatively using Movin’s grading scale and Bonar scores. Results: The highest mean forces were obtained in the HA group on Day 15 and in the VC group on Day 30, with a significant difference between HA and VC on Day 15 between control and VC on Day 30 (p<0.05). Histological examination showed both Movin and Bonar scores decreased in all groups on Day 30, with significant improvements in the HA and VC groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that both VC and HA had therapeutic effects on tendon healing, especially in the late phase. Level of Evidence I; High quality randomized trial with statistically significant difference.