Background: The Ponseti method is the preferred technique to manage idiopathic clubfoot deformity; however, there is no consensus on the expected relapse rate or the percentage of patients who will ultimately require a corrective surgical procedure. The objective of the present systematic review was to determine how reported rates of relapsed deformity and rates of a secondary surgical procedure are influenced by each study’s length of follow-up. Methods: A comprehensive literature search using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was performed to identify relevant articles. The definition of relapse, the percentage of patients who relapsed, the percentage of feet that required a surgical procedure, and the mean duration of follow-up of each study were extracted. Pearson correlations were performed to determine associations among the following variables: mean follow-up duration, percentage of patients who relapsed, percentage of feet that required a joint-sparing surgical procedure, and percentage of feet that required a joint-invasive surgical procedure. Logarithmic curve fit regressions were used to model the relapse rate, the rate of joint-sparing surgical procedures, and the rate of joint-invasive surgical procedures as a function of follow-up time. Results: Forty-six studies met the inclusion criteria. Four distinct definitions of relapse were identified. The reported relapse rates varied from 3.7% to 67.3% of patients. The mean duration of follow-up was strongly correlated with the relapse rate (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.44; p < 0.01) and the percentage of feet that required a joint-sparing surgical procedure (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.59; p < 0.01). Studies with longer follow-up showed significantly larger percentages of relapse and joint-sparing surgical procedures than studies with shorter follow-up (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Relapses have been reported to occur at as late as 10 years of age; however, very few studies follow patients for at least 8 years. Notwithstanding that, the results indicated that the rate of relapse and percentage of feet requiring a joint-sparing surgical procedure increased as the duration of follow-up increased. Longer-term follow-up studies are required to accurately predict the ultimate risk of relapsed deformity. Patients and their parents should be aware of the possibility of relapse during middle and late childhood, and, thus, follow-up of these patients until skeletal maturity may be warranted. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Background: Developed at the University of Iowa in 1950, the Ponseti method to manage idiopathic clubfoot deformity was slow to gain wide acceptance until the mid-1990s. There is a paucity of intermediate and long-term outcome studies involving this technique, with nearly all such studies coming from a single institution. The purpose of this study is to report the contemporary outcome of patients with clubfoot deformity whose feet were managed with the Ponseti method and who were followed to ≥5 years old, to provide outcome expectations for parents and for clinicians managing patients with idiopathic clubfoot. Methods: Families of infants seen in our clinic diagnosed with idiopathic clubfoot since July 2006 were prospectively invited to participate in our institutional review board-approved study. Patients who received no prior outside treatment and had a minimum follow-up to the age of 5 years were included. Demographic, treatment, and outcome data were collected. To provide an array of outcome measures, both the Dallas outcome criteria and the Roye disease-specific instrument (DSI) were used. Results: One hundred and one patients met the inclusion criteria. The mean length of follow-up (and standard deviation) was 81.1 ± 17.1 months. Initial correction was achieved in all feet. Thirty-seven percent of families reported that they were adherent with the bracing protocol; 68% of patients had ≥1 relapse, and 38% underwent a tendon transfer. With the Dallas criteria, 62% had outcomes rated as good, 38% had outcomes rated as fair, and no patient had an outcome rated as poor. With the Roye DSI, most families were generally very satisfied with the function and appearance of the feet. Conclusions: Satisfactory results at intermediate follow-up were achieved using the Ponseti method. However, despite a better understanding of the Ponseti method and the importance of longer post-corrective brace use, the need for anterior tibial tendon transfer remains an important adjunct to the Ponseti method. Brace adherence also continues to be a critical clinical issue. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

There is a general perception that adverse local tissue reactions in metal-on-metal hip arthroplasties are caused by wear, but the degree to which this is the case remains controversial. To what extent is the magnitude of wear associated with (1) the histological changes; (2) presence of metallosis; and (3) likelihood of pseudotumor formation in the periprosthetic tissues? One hundred nineteen metal-on-metal total hip arthroplasties and hip resurfacings were selected from a retrieval collection of over 500 implants (collected between 2004 and 2012) based on the availability of periprosthetic tissues collected during revision, clinical data including presence or absence of pseudotumor or metallosis observed intraoperatively, and wear depth measured using a coordinate measurement machine. Histological features of tissues were scored for aseptic lymphocytic vasculitis-associated lesions (ALVAL). Correlation analysis was performed on the three endpoints of interest. With the sample size available, no association was found between wear magnitude and ALVAL score (ρ = −0.092, p = 0.423). Median wear depth (ball and cup) was greater in hips with metallosis (137 μm; range, 8–873 μm) than in those without (18 μm; range, 8–174 μm; p < 0.0001). With the numbers available, no statistically significant association between wear depth and pseudotumor formation could be identified; median wear depth was 74 μm in hips with pseudotumors and 26 μm in those without (p = 0.741). Wear alone did not explain the histopathological changes in the periprosthetic tissues. A larger sample size and more sensitive outcome variable assessments may have revealed a correlation. However, wear depth has been inconsistently associated with pseudotumor formation, perhaps because some patients with hypersensitivity may develop pseudotumors despite low wear. Metal wear alone may not explain the histological reactions and pseudotumors around metal-on-metal hip implants.

A successful outcome for the treatment of idiopathic clubfoot is believed to require adequate adherence to brace use. Previous studies have relied on parental reporting of brace application. We used temperature sensors to determine the adherence to the bracing protocol, the accuracy of parent-reported use, and differences in adherence between patients who experienced relapse of deformity and those who did not. Using wireless sensors attached to brace sandals, we monitored brace wear over a 3-month period in this cross-sectional study involving 48 patients in 4 age-based groups: 6 to 12 months (Group 1), >1 to 2 years (Group 2), >2 to 3 years (Group 3), and >3 to 4 years (Group 4). Parents were blinded to the purpose of the sensors. The mean number of hours of daily brace use as measured by the sensors was compared with the physician-recommended hours and parent-reported hours of brace use. Sensors were retrieved from 44 of 48 patients. Overall, the median brace use recorded by the sensors was 62% (range, 5% to 125%) of that recommended by the physician, and 77% (range, 6% to 213%) of that reported by the parents. For Groups 1 to 3, the difference between the physician-recommended and measured number of hours of daily brace use was significant (p ≤ 0.002), and the difference between the parent-reported and measured number of hours of daily brace use was also significant (p ≤ 0.013). Eight (18%) of the 44 patients who completed the study experienced relapse during the period of monitoring; most importantly, the mean number of hours of brace wear for these patients, 5 hours per day (median, 4; and standard deviation [SD], 3 hours per day) was significantly lower than the 8 hours per day for those who did not experience relapse (median, 9; and SD, 5 hours per day) (p = 0.045). The present study objectively quantified the number of daily hours of post-corrective brace wear for patients with clubfoot in varying age groups and provides an estimate of the number of hours required to avoid relapse. Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Background: In 2010, a widely used metal-on-metal hip implant design was voluntarily recalled by the manufacturer because of higher than anticipated failure rates at 5 years. Although there was a large published range of revision rates, numerous studies had reported a higher risk of revision for excessive wear and associated adverse tissue reactions when compared with other metal-on-metal total hips. The reasons for this were suggested by some to be related to cup design features. Questions/purposes: From retrievals of ASR metal-on-metal implants and tissue samples obtained at revision surgery, we asked the following questions: (1) What were the common and uncommon surface features? (2) What were the common and uncommon linear and volumetric wear characteristics? (3) Were there common taper corrosion characteristics? (4) What aseptic lymphocytic vasculitis-associated lesion (ALVAL) features were present in the tissues? Methods: Five hundred fifty-five ASRs, including 23 resurfacings, were studied at one academic research center. Features of wear (eg, light and moderate scratching), damage (eg, deposits, gouges), and bone attachment on the porous coating were semiquantitatively ranked from 0 (none) to 3 (> 75%) based on the amount of a feature in each region of interest by the same experienced observer throughout the study. Visible features of head taper corrosion were ranked (Goldberg score) from 1 (none) to 4 (severe) by the same observer using a previously published scoring method. An experienced tribologist measured component wear depth using a coordinate measuring machine and quantified wear volume using previously validated methods. All available tissues were sampled and examined for features of ALVAL and scored from 0 to 10 by a single observer using a method they previously developed and published. A score from 0 to 4 is considered low, 5 to 8 is considered moderate, and 9 or 10 is considered high with regard to the risk of metal hypersensitivity features in the tissues. Results: The most common bearing surface features were light and moderate scratches and removal or postremoval damage. Discoloration and deposits were commonly observed on femoral heads (55% [305 of 553]) and less commonly on cups (30% [165 of 546]). There was no evidence of impingement or dislocation damage. There was typically a small amount of bone attachment in at least one of eight designated regions of interest (84% [460 of 546]); extensive or no bone attachment was uncommon. Edge wear was highly prevalent. The maximum wear of 469 cups (88%) occurred near the edge, whereas the maximum wear of 508 femoral heads (94%) occurred between the pole and 45° from the pole. The median combined head-cup wear volume was 14 mm³ (range, 1-636 mm³). One hundred sixty-nine pairs (32%) had a combined wear volume of < 10 mm³, 42 pairs (8%) had volumetric wear of > 100 mm³, and 319 pairs (60%) had wear volume between 10 and 100 mm³. Seventy-four percent of tapers (390 of 530) received a Goldberg score of 4, 22% (116 of 530) a score of 3, < 5% (24 of 530) a score of 2, and none received a score of 1. The most frequent ALVAL score was 5 out of 10 (35 of 144 hips [24%]) and ranged from 2 (one hip) to 10 (nine hips); 92 of 144 (64%) had a moderate score, 17 of 144 (12%) had a high score, and 35 (24%) had a low score. Conclusions: Although edge wear was prevalent, in most cases, this was not associated with high wear. The increased diameter and decreased coverage angle of the ASR design may have resulted in the observed high incidence of edge wear while perhaps decreasing the risk for impingement and dislocation. Clinical Relevance: The role of bearing wear in the revisions of metal-on-metal implants is controversial, because it is known that there is a large range of in vivo wear rates even within the same implant type and that patient variability affects local tissue responses to wear debris. The observations from our study of 555 retrieved ASR implant sets indicate that there was a wide range of wear including a subset with very high wear. The results suggested that the failure of the ASR and ASR XL was multifactorial, and the failure of different subgroups such as those with low wear may be the result of mechanisms other than reaction to wear debris.