Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Orthopedics for March 2009. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.
Safe Practice Scores Do Not Add Up to Fewer Patient Deaths
TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- In hospitals, higher self-reported scores for improvements in safe practices do not correlate with reduced mortality rates, researchers report in the April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Neck Disc Offers Good Results After Earlier Fusion
TUESDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- Clinical outcomes following placement of an artificial cervical disc were similar in patients with and without previous adjacent cervical fusion, according to research published in the March 15 issue of Spine.
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Seated Postures Linked to Different Muscle Activities
MONDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- The use of electromyography provides helpful details regarding the regional muscle activity that occurs during three sagittally balanced seated postures, according to research published in the March 15 issue of Spine.
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Pregnancy Feasible After Anterior Spinal Surgery
THURSDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- In women of childbearing age, anterior spinal surgery may not affect fertility, although it may be associated with a higher rate of cesarean section deliveries, according to the results of a study published in the April issue of The Spine Journal.
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Positional Vertigo Linked to Osteoporosis and Osteopenia
THURSDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- The dizziness-inducing condition known as benign positional vertigo is associated with osteopenia and osteoporosis, researchers report in the March 24 issue of Neurology.
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Somatosensory Evoked Potential Monitoring Useful
THURSDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- In patients undergoing lumbosacral spinal surgery, monitoring of upper-limb somatosensory evoked potential may help prevent position-related peripheral nerve injuries, according to a report published in the April issue of The Spine Journal.
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Cost Barriers Slow Adoption of Electronic Health Records
WEDNESDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Citing cost barriers, relatively few U.S. hospitals have adopted electronic health records, posing a major obstacle for policy makers who say health information technology is critical to the improvement of health care quality and cost-effectiveness, according to an article published online March 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Collaborative Care Improves Chronic Pain
TUESDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- Among patients who experience chronic pain, those who receive a collaborative approach to pain treatment have improvements in pain and depression severity compared with usual care, researchers report in the March 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Vitamin D Insufficiency Increasing in United States
TUESDAY, March 24 (HealthDay News) -- About three out of four American adolescents and adults currently have insufficient levels of vitamin D, though oral vitamin D supplementation is effective in preventing fractures among older adults, according to two studies published in the March 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Moderate Drinking May Improve Bone Health
THURSDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- In men and postmenopausal women, moderate alcohol consumption may be beneficial to bone health. In men, however, consumption of more than two drinks per day of liquor is associated with significantly lower bone mineral density, according to a study published ahead of print Feb. 25 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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Injection for Hip Osteoarthritis Pain Found Ineffective
THURSDAY, Mar. 12 (HealthDay News) -- A single intraarticular injection of hyaluronic acid for the treatment of hip osteoarthritis was ineffective in achieving significant pain relief in comparison to placebo, according to research published in the March issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
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Local Antibiotics After Spinal Surgery Reduce Infection
THURSDAY, Mar. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Rabbits have reduced levels of infection after spinal surgery if the wounds are prophylactically treated with antibiotic-containing controlled-release microspheres, according to a study in the Mar. 1 issue of Spine.
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Age Affects Optimal Treatment for Spinal Metastases
WEDNESDAY, Mar. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Although surgery for spinal metastases is generally superior to radiation, the treatment giving the best outcome is strongly affected by age, researchers report in the Mar. 1 issue of Spine.
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Dissection of Skeletal Tissue Reduces Spinal Stiffness
TUESDAY, Mar. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Skeletal tissue dissection performed as part of the upper instrumented vertebra anchor site preparation and placement can reduce the stiffness of the proximal adjacent motion segment, researchers report in the Mar. 1 issue of Spine.
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Transdermal Patches Pose Burn Risk During Scans
FRIDAY, Mar. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about the risk of burns as a result of wearing medicated patches, such as those used for smoking cessation or pain relief, during MRI scans.
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Arm Fracture Raises Risk of Hip Fracture in Elderly Women
THURSDAY, Mar. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Elderly women who fracture their arm are at greater risk of fracturing their hip within a year, researchers report in the Mar. 1 issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
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Obama Wants to Spend $630 Billion on Health Care Reform
THURSDAY, Mar. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Achieving health care reform is one of President Barack Obama's major challenges, and his newly released spending plan calls on Congress to commit $630 billion over the next decade to finance that reform, according to an article published online Mar. 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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High Recurrence in Native American Infants with Clubfoot
WEDNESDAY, Mar. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Native American infants with clubfoot living in rural areas and treated by the non-surgical Ponseti method are at high risk of recurrence due to low compliance with the bracing protocol, according to a report in the March issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
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Classification Systems for Spinal Tumors Reliable
TUESDAY, Mar. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Two systems to stage and manage spinal tumors have moderate interobserver reliability and substantial intraobserver reliability, according to the results of a study published in the Feb. 15 issue of Spine.
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Vitamin K Doesn't Reduce Bleeding in Warfarin Patients
TUESDAY, Mar. 3 (HealthDay News) -- In patients receiving warfarin, vitamin K does not reduce bleeding, according to study findings published in the Mar. 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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US Motor Vehicle-Related Death Rates Vary Geographically
MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Although the mortality rate related to motor vehicles remained almost unchanged from 1999 to 2005 in the United States, on closer inspection the data reveals wide variations from state to state, as well as by gender and ethnicity, according to a report published in the Feb. 27 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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Incidence of Sick Leave at Iranian Car Company Examined
MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Workers in Iran, a middle-income country, take little sick leave for neck and shoulder pain compared with workers in high-income countries, researchers report in the Feb. 15 issue of Spine.
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