![5 stages of fracture healing[47]](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eadinesh-Kumara/publication/335380795/figure/fig2/AS:795415876210689@1566653331962/5-stages-of-fracture-healing47_Q320.jpg)
![Earliest recognizable External fixation device[55]](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eadinesh-Kumara/publication/335380795/figure/fig5/AS:795415880409088@1566653332116/Earliest-recognizable-External-fixation-device55_Q320.jpg)
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Abstract and Figures
External fixation for bony alignment and realignment has been in practice since the early 1900s and is widely used today. Application of an external fixation construct is quick, with relatively low risk and minimal blood loss. The adjustable frame allows for fracture alignment and realignment. A bone fracture is a medical condition where the continuity of the bone is broken, which leads to mechanical instability of bones. Bone fractures commonly happen because of falls, road traffic accidents or sports injuries. These type of trauma injuries are responsible for the cause of 10% of deaths worldwide. The predictions show that in between 2000 and 2020, the Road Traffic Accidents(RTAs) will be increased by 83% in less developed countries while in developed countries they will be accounted a continuous decrease by 30%. Therefore, there should be more researches on bone fracture healing methods in developing countries in order to overcome this challenge. External bone fracture fixators play vital role in bone fracture healing. Therefore, researchers are interested in doing developments for the external fixators. Even though researchers have been developing external fixators based on different concepts for years, those developments associated with lot of limitations. Most of them are fixator frame stability with different fracture sites. Loosening and infection are the two most common complications of external fixation. Therefore, there should be product improvements to eradicate loosening of fixator pins and infections at the fracture sites. Pins/wires sizes of the external fixator play a major role for the infections.
Therefore, this research fills the research gap for selecting the exact external pin/wire sizes for the particular fracture. Nationwide trauma clinical database will be deeply analyzed to achieve this objective. In addition to that, this research fills the research gap for the tighten pins/wires (self-locked) of an external ring fixator in different fracture conditions.
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Importance:
In 2011, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) changed its reimbursement policy for hemodialysis to a bundled comprehensive payment system that included the cost of erythrocyte-stimulating agents (ESAs). Also in 2011, the US Food and Drug Administration revised the drug label for ESAs, recommending more conservative dosing in patients with chronic kidney disease. In response to concerns that these measures could have adverse effects on patient care and outcomes, the CMS and the FDA initiated a collaboration to assess the effect.
Objective:
To assess the effects of the changes in reimbursement policy and the ESA drug label on patients who underwent incident hemodialysis.
Design, setting, and participants:
For this retrospective cohort study, patients 66 years or older who had undergone incident hemodialysis, and were enrolled in Medicare parts A, B, or D for at least 12 months prior to hemodialysis initiation between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2013, were recruited from hemodialysis centers across the United States. Patients were divided into 2 cohorts based on their date of hemodialysis initiation and followed: January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2009, for the prepolicy cohort and July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2013, for the postpolicy cohort, with the exclusion of January 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, as a transition period.
Interventions:
Changes in CMS reimbursement policy for dialysis and the FDA label for ESAs.
Main outcomes and measures:
Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), including acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, and all-cause mortality; hospitalized congestive heart failure (H-CHF); venous thromboembolism; and red blood cell transfusions. Secondary outcomes included evaluating effects on black and other patient subgroups.
Results:
Baseline characteristics of the 69 718 incident hemodialysis patients were similar between cohorts. Compared with the prepolicy period, the risk of MACE, death, H-CHF, and venous thromboembolism were similar in the postpolicy period, and the risk of stroke decreased (hazard ratio [HR], 0.77; 95% CI, 0.64-0.93; P = .01); the use of ESAs also decreased, and the rate of blood transfusions increased (HR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.07-1.12; P < .001). In the post-postpolicy period, black patients had a significant reduction in risk of MACE (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.73-0.92; P < .001) and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.73-0.93; P = .002).
Conclusions and relevance:
After the bundling policy and ESA labeling changes in 2011, the risks of MACE and death for patients 66 years or older and covered by fee-for-service Medicare who had undergone incident hemodialysis did not change; the risk of stroke was reduced, and the rate of blood transfusions modestly increased. Black patients had substantial reductions in the risks of MACE and death.
We report a retrospective review of all paediatric trauma patients managed with an external fixator admitted to our institution over a 7-year period. We identified 30 fractures in 28 children. The fractures included 20 tibiae, 5 femurs, 2 humerii, 2 radii and 1 phalanx. The indications were 23 open fractures, 4 comminuted fractures and 3 closed fractures in polytraumatised patients. It was the definitive treatment in 13 fractures. The mean length of total time with an external fixator was 9.6 weeks (range 1-38 weeks.) Difficulties encountered were eight problems, one obstacle and two true complications. There were no cases of re-fracture following removal of the external fixator. This review confirms that there is a role for the use of external fixation in selected paediatric fractures
with a low complication rate.
Surgery in the first half of the nineteenth century was primarily dominated by pain and fear of lethal infections. Therefore, the absolute majority of fractures and dislocations were treated non-operatively. Development of operative treatment of fractures was influenced by three major inventions: anaesthesia (1846), antisepsis (1865) and X-rays (1895). The first to use external fixation is traditionally considered to be Malgaigne (1843). However, his devices cannot be really considered as external fixation. The external fixation device invented by Lambotte in 1902 is generally thought to be the first "real fixator". In America it was Clayton Parkhill, in 1897, with his "bone clamp" who started the process. Both Parkhill and Lambotte observed that metal pins inserted into bone were tolerated extremely well by the body. Mainly on the basis of their research findings, many external fixation devices have been and are being developed.
The use of nationwide databases to conduct orthopaedic research has expanded markedly in recent years. Nationwide databases offer large sample sizes, sampling of patients who are representative of the country as a whole, and data that enable investigation of trends over time. The most common use of nationwide databases is to study the occurrence of postoperative adverse events. Other uses include the analysis of costs and the investigation of critical hospital metrics, such as length of stay and readmission rates. Although nationwide databases are powerful research tools, readers should be aware of the differences between them and their limitations. These include variations and potential inaccuracies in data collection, imperfections in patient sampling, insufficient postoperative follow-up, and lack of orthopaedic-specific outcomes.
Aim: To assess the cost-effectiveness of first-line pemetrexed/platinum and other commonly administered regimens in a representative U.S. elderly population with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Materials and Methods: This study utilized the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) cancer registry linked to Medicare claims records. The study population included all SEER-Medicare patients diagnosed in 2008-2009 with advanced nonsquamous NSCLC (stages IIIB-IV) as their only primary cancer and who started chemotherapy within 90 days of diagnosis. The study evaluated the four most commonly observed first-line regimens: paclitaxel/carboplatin, platinum monotherapy, pemetrexed/platinum and paclitaxel/carboplatin/bevacizumab. Overall survival and total healthcare cost comparisons as well as incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were calculated for pemetrexed/platinum versus each of the other three. Unstratified analyses and analyses stratified by initial disease stage were conducted.
Results: The final study population consisted of 2,461 patients. Greater administrative censorship of pemetrexed recipients at the end of the study period disproportionately reduced the observed mean survival for pemetrexed/platinum recipients. The disease stage-stratified ICER analysis found that the pemetrexed/platinum incurred total Medicare costs of $536,424 and $283,560 per observed additional year of life relative to platinum monotherapy and paclitaxel/carboplatin, respectively. The pemetrexed/platinum versus triplet comparator analysis indicated that pemetrexed/platinum was associated with considerably lower total Medicare costs, with no appreciable survival difference.
Limitations: Limitations included differential censorship of the study regimen recipients and differential administration of radiotherapy.
Conclusions: Pemetrexed/platinum yielded either improved survival at increased cost or similar survival at reduced cost relative to comparator regimens in the treatment of advanced nonsquamous NSCLC. Limitations in the study methodology suggest that the observed pemetrexed survival benefit was likely conservative.
Background
The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which is included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), applies financial penalties to hospitals that have higher-than-expected readmission rates for targeted conditions. Some policy analysts worry that reductions in readmissions are being achieved by keeping returning patients in observation units instead of formally readmitting them to the hospital. We examined the changes in readmission rates and stays in observation units over time for targeted and nontargeted conditions and assessed whether hospitals that had greater increases in observation-service use had greater reductions in readmissions.
Methods
We compared monthly, hospital-level rates of readmission and observation-service use within 30 days after hospital discharge among Medicare elderly beneficiaries from October 2007 through May 2015. We used an interrupted time-series model to determine when trends changed and whether changes differed between targeted and nontargeted conditions. We assessed the correlation between changes in readmission rates and use of observation services after adoption of the ACA in March 2010.
Results
We analyzed data from 3387 hospitals. From 2007 to 2015, readmission rates for targeted conditions declined from 21.5% to 17.8%, and rates for nontargeted conditions declined from 15.3% to 13.1%. Shortly after passage of the ACA, the readmission rate declined quickly, especially for targeted conditions, and then continued to fall at a slower rate after October 2012 for both targeted and nontargeted conditions. Stays in observation units for targeted conditions increased from 2.6% in 2007 to 4.7% in 2015, and rates for nontargeted conditions increased from 2.5% to 4.2%. Within hospitals, there was no significant association between changes in observation-unit stays and readmissions after implementation of the ACA.
Conclusions
Readmission trends are consistent with hospitals’ responding to incentives to reduce readmissions, including the financial penalties for readmissions under the ACA. We did not find evidence that changes in observation-unit stays accounted for the decrease in readmissions.
The use of large-scale national databases for observational research in orthopaedic surgery has grown substantially in the last decade, and the data sets can be categorized as either administrative claims or clinical registries. Clinical registries contain secondary data on patients with a specific diagnosis or procedure. The data are typically used for patient outcome surveillance to improve patient safety and health-care quality. Registries used in orthopaedic research exist at the regional, national, and international levels, and many were designed to specifically collect outcomes relevant to orthopaedics, such as short-term surgical complications, longer-term outcomes (implant survival or reoperations), and patient-reported outcomes. Although heterogeneous, clinical registries-in contrast to claims data-typically have a more robust list of variables, with relatively precise prospective data input, management infrastructure, and reporting systems. Some weaknesses of clinical registries include a smaller number of patients, inconstant follow-up duration, and use of sampling methods that may limit generalizability. Within the U.S., national joint registry adoption has lagged international joint registries. Given the changing health-care environment, it is likely that clinical registries will provide valuable information that has the potential to influence clinical practice improvement and health-care policy in the future.
BACKGROUND
Every year 30% of individuals above age 65 fall, and falls are the principal cause of bone fractures. To reduce fracture incidence requires both prevention of falls and maintenance of bone strength.
METHODS
PubMed searches were performed, for studies of the epidemiology of fractures, bone physiology, endocrine effects, osteoporosis measurement, genetics, prevention and effectiveness. Topic summaries were presented to the Workshop Group and omissions or disagreements were resolved by discussion.
RESULTS
Ageing reduces bone strength in post-menopausal women because estrogen deficiency causes accelerated bone resorption. Bone mineral density (BMD) decreased more than 2.5 standard deviation below the mean of healthy young adults defines osteoporosis, a condition associated with an increased risk of fractures. Risk factors such as age and previous fracture are combined with BMD for a more accurate prediction of fracture risk. The most widely used assessment tool is FRAX™ which combines clinical risk factors and femoral neck BMD. General preventive measures include physical exercise to reduce the risk of falling and vitamin D to facilitate calcium absorption. Pharmacological interventions consist mainly in the administration of inhibitors of bone resorption. Randomized controlled trials show treatment improves BMD, and may reduce the relative fracture risk by about 50% for vertebral, 20–25% for non-vertebral and up to 40% for hip fractures although the absolute risk reductions are much lower.
CONCLUSIONS
Although diagnosis of osteoporosis is an important step, the threshold for treatment to prevent fractures depends on additional clinical risk factors. None of the presently available treatment options provide complete fracture prevention.
In orthopaedic medicine in Germany, Lorenz Heister, practicing in the eighteenth century, is considered one of the fathers of German surgery and is renowned for his books on management of hemorrhage, wounds, fractures, bandaging, instrumentation and surgery. After Heister, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, orthopaedic medicine in Germany developed uniformly. In a period when few doctors were interested in a separate discipline of orthopaedics, Germany led in this field. Heine devoted himself to the development of the new profession of orthopaedics, and in 1816, he opened the first orthopaedic institute on German soil in the former monastery of St. Stephen, which later became known as the Karolinen-Institut. Along with Heine and his family, the special development of orthopaedics in Berlin may be attributed to the work of Dieffenbach who, in 1832, became professor at the University of Berlin and in 1840 director of the Clinical Institute for Surgery at Charité Hospital.