Volume 20 · Issue 06 · 2017

RNA helicase p68 plays an important role in organ development and maturation through tuning cell proliferation. However, the character and role of p68 in the whole wound healing process need more study.

First, we characterize expression of p68 in normal rat skin development postnatal. Then, we assayed dynamic change of p68 in rat skin from different stage after injury, and explored the role of p68 in proliferation and migration of three types of wound healing related cells.

p68 was down-regulated during skin developmental and maturation process, up-regulated after wound, peaked on day 14 and then significantly decreased. Wound fluid enhanced wound healing related cell proliferation and up-regulated expression of p68. Conversely, reducing p68 expression by RNA interference resulted in significantly slower proliferation and migration.

Our results define an important role of RNA helicase p68 in skin wound healing process.

Host response to polytrauma occasionally has unpredictable outcomes. Immune response is a major factor influencing patient's outcome. This study evaluated the interaction of two main cytokines in immune response after major trauma, specifically interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10). Plasma level of these cytokines is determined by mRNA expression of these cytokines genes which may decide the outcome of polytrauma patients.

This prospective multicenter trial held at four trauma centers enrolled 54 polytrauma patients [Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥ 16]. Plasma levels and mRNA expression of IL-6 and IL-10 were measured for 5 days after trauma. Clinical evaluation was conducted to observe whether patients endured multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and death. MODS evaluation was performed using sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA). Trauma load which in this study is represented with ISS, plasma level, expression of cytokine genes and patient's outcome were examined with correlation test and statistical analysis.

The elevated IL-6/IL-10 ratio indicated increased activity of systemic inflammation response, especially pro-inflammation response which bears higher probability of progressing to MODS and death. The decline of IL-6/IL-10 ratio with heavy trauma load (ISS > 30) showed that compensatory anti-inflammation response syndrome (CARS) state was more dominant than systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), indicating that malfunction and failure of immune system eventually lead to MODS and deaths. The statistical significance in plasma level of cytokines was found in the outcome group which was defined as bearing a low trauma load but mortality.

The pattern of cytokine levels in inflammation response has great impact on the outcome of polytrauma patients. Further study at the genetic level is needed to investigate inflammation process which may influence patient's outcome.

The emergency physicians face significant clinical uncertainty when multiple trauma patients arrive in the emergency department (ED). The priorities for assessment and treatment of polytrauma patients are established in the primary survey. Focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) is very essential clinical skill during trauma resuscitation. Use of point of care ultrasound among the trauma team working in the primary survey in emergency care settings is lacking in Suez Canal University Hospitals even ultrasound machine not available in ED. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of FAST in hemodynamically unstable polytraumatized patients and to determine its role as an indication of laparotomy.

This study is a cross-sectional study included 150 polytrauma patients with a blunt mechanism admitted in Suez Canal University Hospital. Firstly primary survey by airway check, cervical spine securing with neck collar, maintenance of breathing/circulation and management of life threading conditions if present were conducted accordingly to ATLS (advanced trauma life support) guidelines. The patients were assessed in the primary survey using the FAST as a tool to determine the presence of intra-abdominal collection.

A total of 150 patients, and FAST scans were performed in all cases. The sensitivity and specificity were 92.6% and 100%, respectively. The negative predictive value was 92%, while the positive predictive value of FAST was 100%. The accuracy of FAST was 96%.

FAST is an important method to detect intra-abdominal fluid in the initial assessment in hemodynamically unstable polytrauma patients with high accuracy.

Lately there is an increasing tendency of using Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) as a final indicator of the outcome of many surgical treatments in orthopaedics and in other medical specialties. Currently there are many outcome scores in orthopaedics and most of them are site specific. In the contrary there is a lack of trauma specific outcome scores.

We have designed a new PROM especially for orthopaedic trauma patients, in order to measure in what extent the patients manage to return to their pre-injury state. This score uses as baseline the preinjury status of the patient and has the aim to determine the percentage of rehabilitation after treatment for any injury.

A total of 60 Chertsey Outcome Score for Trauma (COST) questionnaires were gathered in our outpatients department. The participants were 57% male (aged 46.81 years ± 18.5 years) and the questionnaires collected at mean 10 months post-injury. A Cronbach's Alpha value of 0.89 was identified for the whole construct. The three dimensions of the scale had good internal consistency as well (Cronbach's Alpha test values 0.74, 0.84 and 0.81 for symptoms, function and mental status respectively). Strong/moderate correlation (Spearman's Rho test 0.43-0.65) was observed between the respective physical/mental dimensions of the COST and SF-12v2 questionnaires.

There is a need among the orthopaedic trauma society for a specific PROM of trauma. COST is a useful and easy to use tool for every trauma surgeon.

The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of Z-effect after dual lag screw intra-medullary nailing systems and risk factors contributing to this effect. We hypothesized that long nails provide more neck strength due to a longer lever than short nails and are therefore less likely to develop a misbalance of a higher head compressive strength than neck compressive strength.

In this retrospective cohort study 103 patients treated operatively with a dual lag screw intramedullary nailing device for (sub)trochanteric hip fracture were included. We analysed patient charts regarding patient and operation characteristics. Furthermore we conducted radiologic measurements within the 2-year follow-up period to investigate the quality of fracture fixation, implant failure and predictors for Z-effect. The re-operation risk was investigated with multivariate regression analysis.

The incidence of (reversed) Z-effect in this study was 9% (n = 80); 6 out of 7 Z-effects occurred in the short nail group, which was not significant. Patients who were treated with a long nail had a significant larger number of complications in comparison with the short nail group (median 2 vs 0.5, p= 0.001). The long nail group received more often erythrocytes blood transfusions (82% vs 31%, p < 0.01) and had a longer hospital stay (13 vs 21 days, p < 0.05). Migration of lag screws (p <0.05) and unstable fracture type (p < 0.05), were risk factors for re-operation. The re-operation rate within 2 year after surgery was 21%, of which one fourth was due to a Z-effect.

The nail length was not associated with the development of a Z-effect. Migration of lag screws after intramedullary nailing is common and a risk factor for re-operation.

Pediatric trauma is one of the major health problems around the world which threats the life of children. The survival of injured children depends upon appropriate care, accurate triage and effective emergent surgery. The objective of this study was to determine the predictive values of injury severity score (ISS), new injury severity score (NISS) and revised trauma score (RTS) on children's mortality, hospitalization and need for surgery.

In this study, records of trauma patients under 15 years old transported from a trauma scene to emergency department of Poursina hospital from 2010 to 2011 were included. Statistical analysis was applied to determine the ISS, NISS and RTS ability in predicting the outcomes of interest.

There were 588 records in hospital registry system. The mean age of the patients was (7.3 ± 3.8) years, and 62.1% (n = 365) of patients were male. RTS was the more ability score to predict mortality with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.99 (95% CI, 0.99-1). In the hospital length of stay (LOS), ISS was best predictor for both the hospital LOS with AUC of 0.72 (95% CI, 0.67-0.76) and need for surgical surgery with AUC of 0.94 (95% CI, 0.90-0.98).

RTS as a physiological scoring system has a higher predicting AUC value in predicting mortality. The anatomic scoring systems of ISS and NISS have good performance in predicting of hospital LOS and need for surgery outcomes.

Seatbelt use during pregnancy is important to improve maternal and fetal survival after motor vehicle collisions. However, because the rear seatbelt of a motor vehicle tends to make contact with the neck, even if it is adequately used, some pregnant women sitting in the rear seat opt not to fasten the belt. The purpose of this study is to explore seatbelt-neck contact for pregnant women sitting in the rear seat of a motor vehicle.

We carried out an anthropometric study. Japanese women who were ≥30 weeks pregnant (n = 12) sat in the left side of the rear seat of a typical mid-size passenger sedan and fastened the seatbelt. Seating posture was investigated by measuring the coordinates of the anthropometric data points of the pregnant women (head, shoulder, hip joint, and knee joint). The belt path was analyzed by measuring the clearance between the belt and the sternum or navel.

Among the 12 pregnant women at 33.9 week ± 3.3 week gestation, the shoulder belt deviated to the right side and subsequently contacted to the neck in four pregnant women (Contact group). The height of the Contact group was significantly shorter than that of Non-contact group (152.3 cm ± 3.0 cm vs. 159.0 cm ± 3.3 cm, p = 0.008). Regarding the relative position of the seatbelt to the subject's body, the distances from the top of the sternum to the center of the shoulder belt were significantly shorter in Contact group (3.9 cm ± 3.5 cm) than that in the Non-contact group (8.0 cm ± 1.6 cm, p = 0.03). However, no significant difference was found for the distance from the umbilicus to the center of the lap belt.

Our findings show that because of short height and late term of pregnancy with protrusion of the abdomen, the shoulder belt deviates to the right or left, avoiding the protruded uterus, and subsequently makes contact with the neck. Seatbelt systems for rear seats need to be developed to improve passenger safety, especially for pregnant women.

To compare the efficacy of quadratus femoris muscle pedicle bone flap transplantation combined with hollow compression screw fixation versus AO hollow compression screw fixation in the treatment of femoral neck fracture for Chinese young and middle-aged patients.

Case-controlled studies (CCTs) were used to compare the two operative methods in the treatment of femoral neck fractures. Data were retrieved from the Cochrane Library, Pubmed Database, CNKI, Chinese Biomedical Database.Wanfang Data published during the period of January 2005 to December 2014. Methodological quality of the trials was critically assessed, and relevant data were extracted. Statistical Software Revman 5.0 was used for data-analysis.

Eight articles were included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that there was statistical significance in the rate of fracture healing [OR = 5.43, 95% CI (2.89, 10.20), p < 0.05], the rate of good function of hip joint [OR = 5.12, 95% CI (3.21, 8.17), p < 0.05], the rate of femoral head necrosis [OR = 4.21, 95% CI (2.02, 8.76), p < 0.05], the time of fracture healing [WMD = -46.85, 95% CI (-65.13, -28.56), p < 0.05] between the two groups.

For the treatment of femoral neck fractures, the transplantation of quadratus femoris muscle pedicle bone flap combined with hollow compression screw; fixation is superior to the AO hollow compression screw fixation in terms of the rate; of fracture healing, the rate of good function of hip joint, the rate of femoral head; necrosis and the time of fracture healing.

The mortality of conservative treatment and the risk resulting from operation for elderly patients with femoral intertrochanteric fractures are high. Safety in the perioperative period and quicker recovery should be placed at the top priority for elderly patients with hip fractures. We reported a case of 109- year-old female patient with intertrochanteric fracture who has undergone the hemiarthroplasty in our center recently.

With sciatic nerve and lateral cutaneous nerve block anesthesia, she was offered the artificial femoral head replacement in the lumbar plexus block after sufficient preoperative preparation. The surgery went well with minimally invasive cut, and the patient's recovery was satisfactory.

Innervated full thickness graft will be presented as an option to reconstruct a fingertip defect which might result in better sensibility than standard reconstruction using a full thickness graft without innervation. Also, anastomosing the nerve stumps can decrease the chance of developing neuroma.

Pulmonary arteriovenous fistula (PAVF) is a rare anomaly in the lung, and hemothorax or massive hemoptysis due to spontaneous rupture of the fistula sac is even rarer. The patient described here was a 47- year-old woman who presented with massive hemoptysis resulting from the rupture of her PAVF just after laparoscopic operation. To our knowledge, this may be the first case ever reported that the rupture of PAVF may be correlated with a laparoscopic operation. The patient survived without adverse events after emergency pulmonary lobectomy.

The incidence of internal fixation failure of symphysis diastasis varies from 6% to 75%. Hardware breakage or migration and symphysis disruption recurrence are often asymptomatic and only in a few cases reoperation is required. This report describes the managements of two cases after failed internal fixation and neglected traumatic symphysis diastasis when it was technically impossible to achieve anatomical reduction of the anterior pelvic ring. Internal fixation and a bone graft for the symphysis without anatomical reposition were performed. Both of the patients achieved good results and had no complaints of pain during daily activities. Restoration of the anatomy should not be the aim in treating recurrence of the symphysis diastasis after failed fixation. The aim of the surgery was static fixation of the anterior pelvic ring with bone grafting.

The physis of a long bone may get 'sandwiched’ and crushed between the metaphysis and the epiphysis if it is traumatically loaded along its long axis. Such a physeal injury may lead to complications like angular deformities and growth restrictions and hence, management of such injuries requires adequate planning and attentive execution.

Two patients with distal femoral physeal crush injury were treated using a ring fixator such that one ring had the wires passing through the epiphysis and the other through the femoral shaft. On table image intensifier controlled distraction of the crushed physis was done to bring the height of the physis similar to that of the opposite limb. Patients were followed up for more than two years clinically and radiologically. There was no clinical or radiological angular deformity of the operated limbs. MRI scans showed intact physes with no physeal bar formation in either of the two patients.

The distraction obtained by the ring fixator appears to have provided ample 'breathing space’ to the compressed physis and that the growth potential may have been re-gained by the procedure. However, two years is a relatively short duration of follow-up and further follow-up of longer duration and in greater number of patients is needed to gauge the actual effectiveness of the technique used by us.

A number of orthopedic injuries can occur during epileptic seizures. Anterior shoulder dislocation is one such orthopedic injury that is quite rare. The shoulder dislocation may injure the brachial plexus. Besides seizures, the nerves can also be damaged by anticonvulsive therapy. Muscle wasting following a seizure can misguide a clinician to investigate only neural or muscular pathologies. We report here an individual with epilepsy who was referred to us for electrodiagnostic evaluation of proximal muscle wasting related to a suspected proximal neuropathy. He was found to have a normal electrodiagnostic evaluation and later on discovered to have had bilateral shoulder dislocation on X-rays. This report advocates a thorough clinical appraisal, radiographs, and electrodiagnostic evaluation in a case with muscle wasting following a seizure.