No abstract

Background and purposeIn 2002–2003, several hospitals in Norway introduced the Ponseti method for treating clubfoot. The present multicenter study was conducted to evaluate the initial results of this method, and to compare them to the good results reported in the literature.Patients and methods116 children with 162 congenital idiopathic clubfeet who were born between 2004 and 2006 were treated with the Ponseti method at 8 hospitals in Norway. All children were prospectively registered at birth, and 116 feet were assessed according to Pirani before treatment was started. 63% used a standard bilateral foot abduction brace, and 32% used a unilateral above-the-knee brace. One of the authors examined all feet at a mean age of 4 years. At follow-up, all feet were assessed by Pirani’s scoring system, and range of motion of the foot and ankle was measured.ResultsAt follow-up, 77% of the feet had a Pirani score of 0.5 or better, good dorsiflexion and external rotation, and no forefoot adduction. An Achilles tenotomy had been performed in 79% of the feet. Compliance to any brace was good; only 7% were defined as non-compliant. Extensive soft tissue release had been performed in 3% of the feet.We found no statistically significant differences between the two braces, except a tendency of better Pirani score in the group using the bilateral foot abduction brace, and a tendency of better compliance in patients using the unilateral brace. Better Pirani scores were found in children who were treated at the largest hospitals.InterpretationAfter introducing the Ponseti method in Norway, the clinical outcome was good and in accordance with the reports from single centers. Only 5 feet needed extensive surgery during the first 4 years of life.

No abstract

When revising loosened joint prosthesis, impacted morsellized bone is frequently used as organic scaffolding. We studied the relative influence that different bone particle size, impaction energy, and liquid content had on impacted bone stiffness. Bovine bone was morsellized in a bone mill by three grinding drums to produce bone with different chip size distribution. Next, portions of bone chips of controlled sizes were produced by a five-leveled sieve. Layer by layer of bone are constructed into pellets by our experimental impaction method. This method allows us to vary one independent factor at a time in a controlled manner while keeping the other factors constant. Stiffness for all bone pellets were measured during impaction and loading. In earlier studies, we focused on how impaction force, number of impaction strokes, and bone liquid contents influence mechanical behavior. Here, we compare the outcome of all studies using general linear models. All five factors significantly contribute to stiffness of impacted morsellized bone. Changing bone moisture has major, while increasing the number of impaction strokes beyond five per layer has minor effect. Low water content is the main contributor to highest load stiffness. Optimal stability of impacted morsellized bone is achieved with dried and well-graded particles. The number of heavy impaction strokes can be restricted.

Morselized corticocancellous bone (MCB) is widely used in revision surgery with and without impaction. In the current study material parameters for the nonlinear viscoelastic and plastic responses of impacted and unimpacted human MCBs were determined during constrained compression. These models may be useful in finite element analyses of surgical constructs involving impacted and unimpacted MCBs. MCB is impacted layer by layer in the femoral canal during revision surgery. The influence of different layers on the mechanical properties was therefore also examined by comparing the relaxation strength and elastic and plastic strains for bone pellets impacted in one and two layers during constrained compression of human MCB. The relaxation strength was found to increase significantly by 14% for two layer pellets compared to one layer pellets, and the plastic strains decreased significantly by 15%, while the elastic strains were similar.