A retrospective review of spinal deformity in patients with congenital heart disease surgically treated through a median sternotomy before the age of 8 years. Assessment was done on chest roentgenograms at skeletal maturity. To determine if patients surgically treated through a median sternotomy present a higher prevalence of spinal deformity. Congenital heart disease is associated with a higher prevalence of scoliosis. The etiology of scoliosis in this group of patients is unknown. Thoracotomy causes scoliosis, but median sternotomy has not been identified as a causal agent in these patients. Chest roentgenograms were done after skeletal maturity in 128 patients to assess for the presence of a spinal deformity in the sagittal or coronal plane as a result of a median sternotomy for treatment of congenital heart disease before the age of 8 years in patients without any prior radiographic evidence of spinal or costal deformity before surgery. Forty-four (34.3%) of these patients had scoliosis greater than 10°, 16 of them (12.5%) had curves greater than 20°, and 33 (25.8%) had thoracic kyphosis lesser than 20°. Patients operated before the age of 18 months had a significantly increased risk of developing scoliosis than those operated at a later age (odds ratio = 3.5; confidence interval = 1.3–9.6; P = 0.016). The presence of scoliosis was not related to the type of congenital heart disease. There is a high prevalence of scoliosis in patients with congenital heart disease surgically treated through a median sternotomy. The prevalence of scoliosis increases in patients operated at an earlier age.

Large skeletal muscle injuries, such as a volumetric muscle loss (VML), often result in an incomplete regeneration due to the formation of a non-contractile fibrotic scar tissue. This is, in part, due to the outbreak of an inflammatory response, which is not resolved over time, meaning that type-1 macrophages (M1, pro-inflammatory) involved in the initial stages of the process are not replaced by pro-regenerative type-2 macrophages (M2). Therefore, biomaterials that promote the shift from M1 to M2 are needed to achieve optimal regeneration in VML injuries. In this work, we used elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs) as biomaterials for the formation of non- (physical) and covalently (chemical) crosslinked bioactive and biodegradable hydrogels to fill the VML created in the tibialis anterior (TA) muscles of rats. These hydrogels promoted a higher infiltration of M2 within the site of injury in comparison to the non-treated control after 2 weeks (p<0.0001), indicating that the inflammatory response resolves faster in the presence of both types of ELR-based hydrogels. Moreover, there were not significant differences in the amount of collagen deposition between the samples treated with the chemical ELR hydrogel at 2 and 5 weeks, and this same result was found upon comparison of these samples with healthy tissue after 5 weeks, which implies that this treatment prevents fibrosis. The macrophage modulation also translated into the formation of myofibers that were morphologically more similar to those present in healthy muscle. Altogether, these results highlight that ELR hydrogels provide a friendly niche for infiltrating cells that biodegrades over time, leaving space to new muscle tissue. In addition, they orchestrate the shift of macrophage population toward M2, which resulted in the prevention of fibrosis in the case of the chemical hydrogel treatment and in a more healthy-like myofiber phenotype for both types of hydrogels. Further studies should focus in the assessment of the regeneration of skeletal muscle in larger animal models, where a more critical defect can be created and additional methods can be used to evaluate the functional recovery of skeletal muscle.

Recent studies confirm the applicability of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)-based systems for human motion analysis. Notwithstanding, high-end IMU-based commercial solutions are yet too expensive and complex to democratize their use among a wide range of potential users. Less featured entry-level commercial solutions are being introduced in the market, trying to fill this gap, but still present some limitations that need to be overcome. At the same time, there is a growing number of scientific papers using not commercial, but custom do-it-yourself IMU-based systems in medical and sports applications. Even though these solutions can help to popularize the use of this technology, they have more limited features and the description on how to design and build them from scratch is yet too scarce in the literature. The aim of this work is two-fold: (1) Proving the feasibility of building an affordable custom solution aimed at simultaneous multiple body parts orientation tracking; while providing a detailed bottom-up description of the required hardware, tools, and mathematical operations to estimate and represent 3D movement in real-time. (2) Showing how the introduction of a custom 2.4 GHz communication protocol including a channel hopping strategy can address some of the current communication limitations of entry-level commercial solutions. The proposed system can be used for wireless real-time human body parts orientation tracking with up to 10 custom sensors, at least at 50 Hz. In addition, it provides a more reliable motion data acquisition in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi crowded environments, where the use of entry-level commercial solutions might be unfeasible. This system can be used as a groundwork for developing affordable human motion analysis solutions that do not require an accurate kinematic analysis.

Background: Clinical management in orthogeriatric units and outcome indicators are similar for extracapsular fragility hip fractures, without discriminating between subtrochanteric and pertrochanteric fractures. Hypothesis: Geriatric patients, 75 years or older, with subtrochanteric fractures have worse clinical and functional outcomes than those with pertrochanteric fractures. Materials and methods: Retrospective observational study of data prospectively collected by the Spanish Hip Fracture Registry including patients 75 years or older, admitted for extracapsular hip fractures from January 2017 to June 2019. Demographic and baseline status, pre-operative, post-operative and 30-day follow-up data were included. Results: A total of 13,939 patients with extracapsular hip fractures were registered: 12,199 (87.5%) pertrochanteric and 1740 (12.5%) subtrochanteric. At admission, patients with subtrochanteric fractures were younger (86.5 ± 5.8 versus 87.1 ± 5.6 years old), had better pre-fracture mobility (3.7 ± 2.7 versus 3.9 ± 2.8) (1-to-10 scale, 1 being independent) and were more likely to be living at home; those with pertrochanteric fractures had worse cognitive function (Pfeiffer 3.3 ± 3.3 versus 3.8 ± 3.5). The subtrochanteric fracture group showed worse post-fracture mobility (7.3 ± 2.7 versus 6.7 ± 2.7) and greater deterioration of mobility (3.7 ± 3.0 versus 2.9 ± 2.7). Among individuals living at home at baseline, those with subtrochanteric fractures were more likely to remain in an assisted facility at 30-day follow-up. In-hospital mortality during acute admission was higher for the subtrochanteric group (5.6% versus 4.5%) (p = 0.028). To our knowledge, this is the first paper highlighting the differences between these two fracture groups in the geriatric population. Conclusions: Subtrochanteric fractures in the older population are a different and worse entity, with greater morbimortality and functional decline than pertrochanteric fractures. Despite being younger and fitter at admission, older patients with subtrochanteric fractures have a higher risk of remaining non-weight bearing and undergoing re-operation and institutionalization. Orthogeriatric units should be aware of this and manage subtrochanteric fractures accordingly. Level of evidence: IV.

The aim of this study was to compare the complications of the trochanteric gamma nail (TGN) and the Gamma3 Nail (G3), focusing on cutout failure. Retrospective comparative cohort analysis. Level II Teaching Trauma Center academic trauma center. Two hundred eighteen trochanteric fractures with a mean follow-up of 15 months were included in the study. They were treated either with the TGN or the G3 between January 2005 and December 2010. Bivariate, stratified, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the association between cutout and the independent variables. Proximal anterograde nailing with either the TGN or the G3. Patient age, sex, type of intramedullary device, stability fracture pattern, tip-apex distance (TAD), distraction at the fracture site, cervical angle, and cutout. The relative risk (RR) of cutout was 4.71 times higher in the group treated with G3 (P < 0.01). RR of cutout for unstable fractures compared with stable fractures was 3.07 (1.01-9.35). In unstable fractures, the RR of cutout was 8.78 times higher in patients with G3 (P < 0.01). RR of cutout was 1.54 times higher with TAD >25 mm (P = 0.4). We have not found any relationship between cutout rate and TAD. Only the fracture pattern and the type of implant have shown to be associated with cutout risk. In our study, Gamma3 Nail has higher cutout rates than TGN in unstable fractures. Therapeutic level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.