Up to now, sporting activity after total hip arthroplasty has been limited or terminated completely because of the risk of failure. In the case of younger patients, it is desirable to know whether this attitude is justified. Consequently, an analysis has been made of 110 patients (all male, average age at the time of the operation 55 years, 42 bilateral). Sport was practised in 78 and 56% of the cases prior to an after the operation respectively. The patients with intense sporting activity were examined and the findings compared with those who did not participate in a sporting activity after the operation. The incidence of replacement due to loosening is surprisingly higher among the group of patients with no sporting activity (14.3% to 1.6%). In the light of these findings, there is no need to prohibit sport in these cases. To allow for a gradual resumption of sport, guidelines have been elaborated on the basis of present-day knowledge of quantitative and qualitative hip strain. The short load peaks appearing as the heel touches the ground on walking or running will be attenuated by means of a viscoelastic heel pad.
Loosening is a serious problem in total arthroplasty and early detection of bone loss in the vicinity of an implant would help in its investigation. We present a method for the objective evaluation of bone adjacent to metallic implants in which a modified technique of quantitative computed tomography (QCT) is used to reconstruct cross-sectional images with few artefacts. We have used this technique in 19 patients with knee arthroplasties to monitor the changes in bone density around the tibial stem of the prosthesis. In the first weeks after operation all patients showed a decrease in bone density ranging from 0.4% to 3.6% per month. One year after arthroplasty bone density had stabilised and only minor changes were observed. Our work indicates that modified QCT is a sensitive method for the long-term monitoring of the anchorage of implants and allows the early detection of osteolytic changes.
IntroductionIn part I of the study, the nine most commonly used questionnaires specifically for low back pain were subjected to a complete validation process. The validation procedure examined reliability, responsiveness and minimum clinically important difference, external validity and floor and ceiling effects. This article will study a number of different aspects of questionnaire composition, content, and understandability. The first of these aspects is the relationship between the questionnaire and the modern concepts of disability, activity limitation, handicap and restrictions in society.The 1980 WHO International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) [27] considered the manifestations of a disease in three domains: (1) impairment which is related to loss or abnormality of body structures or function (e.g. liver damage, knee damage, sensory impairment, pain [17]), (2) disability related to the individual (e.g. disabilities in activities of daily living, domestic tasks, communication) and (3) handicap related to society (e.g. employment, social integration, sport).Pathologies express their manifestations in all three ICIDH dimensions but (depending on the individuality of the patient) the values of the three dimensions are expressed individually. The values of each of the three dimensions are correlated (low or high correlation) but there is no causality between them. Thus some patients with slight impairments of body structures (e.g. minimal contusion in the low back) can present major disability and handicap after one year, and others with major impairment (e.g. severe lumbar fracture) can present only minor disability or handicap after three months. That is why each of the three dimensions must be assessed individually.Abstract A literature review of the most widely used, condition-specific, self-administered assessment questionnaires for low back pain has been undertaken. In part I, technical issues such as validity, reliability, availability and comparability were analyzed for the nine most widely used outcome tools. This second part focuses on the content and wording of questions and answers in each of the nine questionnaires, and an analysis of the different score results is performed. The issue of score bias is discussed and suggestions are given in order to increase the construct validity in the practical use of the individual questionnaires.
Aseptic loosening of total hip arthroplasty is still a serious problem. Bone quality might be one of the major factors influencing loosening. In a previous study, bone loss during the reparation phase was evaluated with modified computed tomography at the site of the implant. The present study documents the degree of disuse osteoporosis prior to and after surgery. Bone density of both tibiae of patients with unilateral artificial hip joints was evaluated longitudinally. Preoperatively a significant right-left difference was found, that has to be attributed to the preoperative unloading of the diseased leg. After surgery a slight but significant bone loss was found in both legs attributable to the immobilization following surgery and the reduced activity in the first 6 months. In successfully operated cases this loss is temporary. In one patient bone loss continued; after 1 year there are now clinical signs of implant loosening. Although the spectrum of physical activity in our group was wide, no correlation between activity and bone loss has been found so far.
The surgical act is based on the laws of causality from Newton and Galilei and it is determined by the principle of cause and effect. Therefore, the healing process must be interpreted as a turning back of pathogenesis or the linear chain of casualities. Scientific knowledge of this century demonstrates that biological healing processes are connected with the laws of cybernetics and the principles of semiotics. There are functional relations between the level of the organ (impairments) of the individual (disabilities) and of the society (handicaps). This International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) serves as the key for the management of chronic diseases. An independent and a separate classification of the severity in each level is necessary to identify the consequences of the disease to the patient. Surgical interventions occur on the organ level, benefit and evidence are reflected especially on the individual level (gain of abilities). The assessment and the integration of the so-called "sensory impairment", influenced by the biographical events of the patient and the evaluation of the psychosocial resistance are important factors to recognize unfavourable conformity between the degree of impairment and the degree of disability. With this classification, a more patient-oriented discussion of the indications regarding operative procedures can be realised. The MARA model (mean age-related ability) serves as a pragmatic basis for the description of the benefits of carried out and omitted interventions as changes of abilities by using the MARA curve as an ethical guideline. This model, which is on ICIDH, the hierarchy of needs and the salutogenesis (semiotics, cybernetics), facilitate the introduction of evidence-based surgery. It helps to estimate the several predictive values and correlation factors influencing the manifestation of the disease. In this way astonishing results in evidence can be expected. Finally, many misunderstandings in health care discussions are explained by the fact that the differences between pathology and illness are not clearly interpreted.
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