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Background Many patients use the Internet for health information. However, there are few guarantees to the reliability and accuracy of this information. This study examined the quality and content of Internet webpages for ten common pediatric orthopedic diagnoses. Methods We identified ten common diagnoses in pediatric orthopedics: brachial plexus injury, cerebral palsy, clubfoot, developmental dysplasia of the hip, leg length discrepancy, osteochondroma, polydactyly, scoliosis, spina bifida, and syndactyly. We used two of the most popular search engines to identify the top ten websites for each disease. We evaluated the websites utilizing both the quality-based Health On the Net Foundation criteria and our own content-based grading sheets. The custom grading sheets focused on essential information about disease summary, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Results Three Orthopedic surgeons graded 98 academic, commercial, non-profit and physicians’ websites for ten diseases. Academic websites scored the highest in content (mean 60.8%±15.5), while commercial websites scored the lowest (mean 46.7%±22.2). Among the diagnoses, osteochondroma websites had the highest content scores (mean 75.8%±11.8), while polydactyly websites had the lowest content scores (mean 39.3%±15.7). In contrast, websites about developmental dysplasia of the hip had the highest HON scores (65.0±11.1), while those about brachial plexus birth palsy scored the lowest (42.6%±16.9). Among the content subgroups, scores were generally higher for disease summary and diagnostics and lower for prognosis. Conclusions The Internet websites reviewed demonstrated a wide range of content and information. We found that non-profit and academic websites were the most reliable sources while commercial and, surprisingly, physician-run websites were the least reliable. We advise physicians to talk with their patients about the information they get on Internet and how it dictates their expectations. We hope this study, combined with further understanding of how our patients use this information, can help improve Internet content. Clinical Relevance Physicians should know their patients may be receiving misleading information from the Internet and be able to discuss this with their patients.

The Dupaco ProneView Protective Helmet System is superior to both the OSI and the ROHO positioners in decreasing forehead and chin tissue interface pressures during prone position surgery.

This study shows that axial failure loads of the crossed-screw configuration were greater than those of the parallel screw configuration. Clinically, this provides the surgeon more options for stabilizing a subtrochanteric femur fracture. This decision may be made intra-operatively if necessary, facilitating fracture fixation and providing a stable construct.