Dr. Smith is a fellowship-trained, Board Certified orthopaedic surgeon with extensive training in hip & knee surgery from the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota & the New Albany Surgical Hospital in New Albany, Ohio. He completed his Orthopedic Surgery Residency at Michigan State University & medical school..
People who sustain the most common type of hip fracture are at increased risk of complications. A special type of MRI has been developed that can show a detailed image following fracture repair, without the distortion caused by metal surgical screws that are problematic in standard MRIs. Each year, more than 340,000 people suffer a broken hip in the United States.
Genetics may explain why some senior athletes are high functioning despite having one or both hip abnormalities typically associated with early onset osteoarthritis: developmental dislocation of the hip (dysplasia), a loose hip joint; or femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), a condition in which the hip bones are abnormally shaped.
Drinking water with a relatively high concentration of magnesium protects against hip fractures, according to results of a new study. The researchers studied variations in magnesium and calcium levels in drinking water between different areas, as these are assumed to have a role in the development of bone strength. They wanted to examine whether there was a correlation between magnesium and calcium concentrations in drinking water and the incidence of hip fracture. The study results show that magnesium protects against hip fracture for both men and women. The researchers found no independent protective effect of calcium.
Using pure silk protein derived from silkworm cocoons, investigators have developed surgical plates and screws that offer improved remodeling following injury and can be absorbed by the body over time. When a person suffers a broken bone, current treatment calls for the surgeon to insert screws and plates to help bond the broken sections and enable the fracture to heal. These "fixation devices" are usually made of metal alloys. But metal devices may have disadvantages: Because they are stiff and unyielding, they can cause stress to underlying bone, among other problems.
As more Americans are living well into their 90s, the number of nonagenarian total hip replacement (THR) candidates continues to increase.
The authors of the study concluded that nonagenarian patients can safely undergo a THR, despite advanced age and a higher prevalence of comorbidities. Overall, the nonagenarian patients experienced a complication rate comparable to those of younger THR patients, and the higher mortality rate is well within expectations for individuals age 90 and older.
Oral glucosamine supplementation is not associated with a lessening of knee cartilage deterioration among individuals with chronic knee pain, a short-term study found. Findings indicate that glucosamine does not decrease pain or improve knee bone marrow lesions -- more commonly known as bone bruises and thought to be a source of pain in those with osteoarthritis.
Adolescents who have an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction are more likely to demonstrate osteoarthritic changes later in life, researchers have discovered. “Early reconstruction of ACLs is often the trend for young more skeletally mature athletes to restore knee stability and prevent progressive meniscal and/or articular cartilage damage. Often these procedures do allow individuals to return to the playing field and continue an active lifestyle. However, it is still important to evaluate long-term effects such as osteoarthritis when considering surgeries for these pediatric patients,” said the lead researcher.
One of the biggest concerns of patients considering knee replacement is the amount of pain they will have after surgery. Although it is a very successful operation overall to relieve arthritis pain and restore function, persistent postoperative pain can be a problem for some individuals. Researchers determined which patients were at highest risk for increased postoperative pain based on demographic and surgical variables.
Two types of regional anesthesia do not make patients more prone to falls in the first days after having knee replacement surgery as some have previously suggested, according to a study based on nearly 200,000 patient records. Regional forms of anesthesia – spinal or epidural (neuraxial) anesthesia and peripheral nerve blocks (PNB) – which only numb the area of the body that requires surgery, provide better pain control and faster rehabilitation and fewer complications than general anesthesia, research shows. But some surgeons avoid using them due to concerns regional anesthesia may cause motor weakness, making patients more likely to fall when they are walking in the first days after knee replacement surgery.
Same-day bilateral knee replacement surgery is safe for select patients with rheumatoid arthritis, researchers from Hospital for Special Surgery in New York have found.
Generally, patients with an inflammatory systemic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are sicker than patients with the degenerative condition osteoarthritis (OA), says senior study author Mark Figgie, M.D., chief of the Surgical Arthritis Service at Hospital for Special Surgery, and the hospital's first Allan E. Inglis, MD, Chair in Surgical Arthritis.
