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Objective: To determine the efficiency of the deep venous thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis protocol in postoperative patients due to proximal femoral fractures and to assess any statistical difference between the types of fractures. Methods: A retrospective observational study based on the analysis of patients’ medical records who underwent to a surgical intervention due to proximal femoral fractures in 2017 and 2021 at Hospital IFOR - Rede D’Or São Luiz. These patients were selected according to previously determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 99 patients were included divided by sex, age, laterality, length of stay, and death. According to the institutional protocol, was used chemoprophylaxis with low-molecular-weight heparin, associated use of pneumatic compression with compression stockings, and early gait. The DVT diagnosis was determined by clinical evaluation and imaging tests such as venous Doppler ultrasonography and laboratory tests. Results: The protocol was effective in our study. Only one (1.01%) patient developed DVT. Due to the lack of samples, we could not achieve our secondary objective. Conclusion: The institutional protocol is efficient for DVT prophylaxis and essential in these cases. Level of Evidence II, Prognostic Study.

Objective: Evaluating intra- and inter-observer agreement of the Neer, AO, and AO/OTA proximal humerus fractures classification systems in adults. Methods: In total, 100 X-rays of patients with proximal humerus fractures were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria established in this study. They were evaluated by four evaluators with different levels of expertise. The evaluation was performed at two distinct moments, with an interval of 21 days between each analysis. Images were randomized for the second evaluation by a researcher who did not participate in the image selection process. A Fleiss Kappa test was performed to evaluate intra- and inter-observer agreement. Results: We observed a substantial agreement with k = 0.669, k = 0.715, and k = 0.780 for the Neer, AO, and AO/OTA classification systems, respectively. Conclusion: In the second evaluation, intra-observer agreement improved. In the first evaluation, we obtained values of k = 0.724, k = 0.490, and k = 0.599 for the evaluation of the Neer, AO, and AO/OTA classifications. In the second evaluation, the values k = 0.759, k = 0.772, and k = 0.858. Therefore, the evaluations went from moderate to substantial for the AO classification and from moderate to practically perfect for the AO/OTA classification. The level of inter-observer agreement was substantial (0.61-0.80), with k = 0.669, k = 0.715, and k = 0.780 for the Neer, AO, and AO/OTA classifications, respectively. Level of Evidence III, Cross-Sectional Observational Study.

Nerve growth factor (a-NGF) inhibitors have been developed for pain treatment including symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) and have proven analgesic efficacy and improvement in functional outcomes in patients with OA. However, despite initial promising data, a-NGF clinical trials focusing on OA treatment had been suspended in 2010. Reasons were based on concerns regarding accelerated OA progression but were resumed in 2015 including detailed safety mitigation based on imaging. In 2021, an FDA advisory committee voted against approving tanezumab (one of the a-NGF compounds being evaluated) and declared that the risk evaluation and mitigation strategy was not sufficient to mitigate potential safety risks. Future clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of a-NGF or comparable molecules will need to define strict eligibility criteria and will have to include strategies to monitor safety closely. While disease-modifying effects are not the focus of a-NGF treatments, imaging plays an important role to evaluate eligibility of potential participants and to monitor safety during the course of these studies. Aim is to identify subjects with on-going safety findings at the time of inclusion, define those potential participants that are at increased risk for accelerated OA progression and to withdraw subjects from on-going studies in a timely fashion that exhibit imaging-confirmed structural safety events such as rapid progressive OA. OA efficacy- and a-NGF studies apply imaging for different purposes. In OA efficacy trials image acquisition and evaluation aims at maximizing sensitivity in order to capture structural effects between treated and non-treated participants in longitudinal fashion. In contrast, the aim of imaging in a-NGF trials is to enable detection of structural tissue alterations that either increase the risk of a negative outcome (eligibility) or may result in termination of treatment (safety).

resolving patients' complaints, we could increase the compliance to the knee braces, so improve patients' quality of life as well as delay surgery. This last point is important because of the cost of knee surgery. For instance, in 2010, KOA was responsible for 97% of initial knee replacement having a cost of £426 million in UK.