Summary:Quadricuspid aortic valves (QAV) are a rare but well recognized cause of significant aortic regurgitation. The first case was found reported in 1862. Since then there have been 110 reported cases of QAV and we report 4 more. Previously, these were diagnosed at the time of surgery or postmortem examination. With advances in echocardiography, including harmonic imaging, and also the advent of transesophageal echocardiography, more cases are being diagnosed prior to surgery. We describe four more cases, three diagnosed preoperatively and one at the time of surgery, and then review the previously reported cases. Of the 114 cases reported, 46 had the aortic valve replaced, most commonly in the 5th and 6th decade of life. Hurwitz and Roberts classified quadricuspid valves according to the size of the leaflets. It has previously been believed that QAVs with four equal sized leaflets were less likely to develop significant aortic regurgitation; however, on review of the available cases, this would not appear to be the case. The preoperative diagnosis of QAVs is important as they can be associated with abnormally placed coronary ostium. Of the 114 cases reported, there are 10 reports of abnormally placed ostia. There has been at least one reported case of death occurring because of obstruction of an abnormally placed right coronary ostium by a prosthetic aortic valve.

TTE with Valsalva manoeuvre is as good as TEE in diagnosing shunts. Valsalva manoeuvre increases the size of shunt. Both techniques produce false negative results.

BackgroundPatient reported outcome measurement (PROMs) will not capture in detail the functional joint motion before and after total hip arthroplasty (THA). Therefore, methods more specifically aimed to analyse joint movements may be of interest. An analysis method that addresses these issues should be readily accessible and easy to use especially if applied to large groups of patients, who you want to study both before and after a surgical intervention such as THA. Our aim was to evaluate the accuracy of inertial measurement units (IMU) by comparison with an optical tracking system (OTS) to record pelvic tilt, hip and knee flexion in patients who had undergone THA.Methods49 subjects, 25 males 24 females, mean age of 73 years (range 51–80) with THA participated. All patients were measured with a portable IMU system, with sensors attached lateral to the pelvis, the thigh and the lower leg. For validation, a 12-camera motion capture system was used to determine the positions of 15 skin markers (Oqus 4, Qualisys AB, Sweden). Comparison of sagittal pelvic rotations, and hip and knee flexion-extension motions measured with the two systems was performed. The mean values of the IMU’s on the left and right sides were compared with OTS data.ResultsThe comparison between the two gait analysis methods showed no significant difference for mean pelvic tilt range (4.9–5.4 degrees) or mean knee flexion range (54.4–55.1 degrees) on either side (p > 0.7). The IMU system did however record slightly less hip flexion on both sides (36.7–37.7 degrees for the OTS compared to 34.0–34.4 degrees for the IMU, p < 0.001).ConclusionsWe found that inertial measurement units can produce valid kinematic data of pelvis- and knee flexion-extension range. Slightly less hip flexion was however recorded with the inertial measurement units which may be due to the difference in the modelling of the pelvis, soft tissue artefacts, and malalignment between the two methods or misplacement of the inertial measurement units.Trial registrationThe study has ethical approval from the ethical committee “Regionala etikprövningsnämnden i Göteborg” (Dnr: 611–15, 2015-08-27) and all study participants have submitted written approval for participation in the study.

We reviewed retrospectively the outcome of the treatment by impaction grafting of periprosthetic femoral fractures around loose stems in 106 patients with Vancouver type-B2 and type-B3 fractures. Eighty-nine patients had a cemented revision with impaction grafting and a long or short stem. The remaining 17 had cemented revision without impaction grafting. Fractures treated by impaction grafting and a long stem were more than five times likely to unite than those treated by impaction grafting and a short stem (odds ratio = 5.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.54 to 19.6; p = 0.009). Furthermore, those with impaction grafting and a long stem were significantly more likely to unite than those with a long stem without impaction grafting (odds ratio = 4.07, 95% CI 1.10 to 15.0; p = 0.035). There was also a trend towards a higher rate of union in those treated by impaction grafting than in those without (odds ratio = 2.69, 95% CI 0.86 to 8.45; p = 0.090). Impaction grafting is being increasingly widely used for the restoration of femoral bone stock. It can be successfully applied to periprosthetic femoral fractures but a long stem should be used to bypass the distal fracture line.