A hip brace designated as WISH-type of S-form hip brace was applied for 14 patients with painful hip osteoarthritis (OA), who were required to walk as an exercise at least a half hour every day. Patients were independently evaluated and serially scored using the Harris and Japanese Orthopaedic Surgery (JOA) scores. Pain relief on gait was obtained immediately and dramatically in all patients, providing high compliance. Approximately three fourths of patients acquired independence from analgesics. Both Harris and JOA scoring systems indicated significant improvement of hip function. Only two cases showed poor responses, and common factors in these cases included bilateral involvement and unsuccessfulness of daily walking exercise. The present WISH-type hip brace may be one of the most valuable treatments in the management of the hip OA. Requirements of muscle exercise around the hip girdle involving daily walking should be emphasized for maintenance of the brace effects.

The management of patients with combined medial collateral (MCL) and anterior cruciate (ACL) rupture remains controversial. We studied 25 such patients who elected to have the ACL lesion treated conservatively; 14 underwent MCL repair with early mobilization and 11 were treated with immobilization for two weeks. The mean follow up was 5.9 years (2 to 11). There was no difference in the clinical assessment of ligamentous laxity, KT-1000 measurements or Tegner activity scores between the two groups but there were significantly higher Lysholm function scores in the operated group.Résumé Le traitement optimal des cas associant des lés-ions du ligament croisé antérieur (ACL) à des lésions médiales collatérales (MCL) est controversé. Nous avons réalisé une étude sur le suivi du traitement de telles lés-ions dans le but d'évaluer si le traitement opératoire des déchirures de MCL peut apporter une amélioration des résultats fonctionnels pour des patients choisissant de ne pas subir une reconstruction de ACL. Notre étude portait sur 14 patients ayant subi une reconstruction du MCL et 11 patients traités sans opération. Nous n'avons pas observé de différences significatives entre les deux groupes pour les tests de relâchement manuel, ni pour les mesures KT-1000, ni pour les niveaux d'activité de Tegner. En revanche les patients du groupe opératoire ont obtenu un meilleur score fonctionnel de Lysholm.

Response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a significant prognostic factor for osteosarcoma (OS). 18-F-fluorodeoxy-D: -glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) is a noninvasive imaging modality that correlates with histological grading in musculoskeletal sarcomas. To determine the prognostic value of FDG PET in patients receiving chemotherapy, 13 patients were evaluated by FDG-PET, and followed for more than 4 years. FDG PET standardized uptake values before (SUV1) and after (SUV2) chemotherapy were analyzed and correlated with the expression of metastasis-related glycolytic enzyme, autocrine motility factor (AMF)/phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) by immunohistochemical examination in surgically excised tumors. Although mean SUV1 for OS patients with metastatic lesions were similar to those in the completely disease-free (CDF) group (6.5 vs. 6.6, respectively, P = 0.975), mean SUV2 for OS with metastatic lesions were significantly higher than those in the CDF group (5.1 vs. 2.5, respectively, P = 0.0445). Interestingly, immunohistochemical analysis using anti-AMF/PGI antibody revealed that SUV2 correlated significantly with the AMF/PGI staining titers (P = 0.0303), while no correlation between SUV1 and the AMF/PGI staining titers existed (P = 0.964). The present study suggests that FDG PET after chemotherapy may provide information for AMF/PGI-related metastatic potentiality of residual tumors located out side of the area surgically resected afterward, and then lead to a useful prediction of the patients' prognosis.

The direct effect of the hip brace may be related to the hip function in the turning phase of TUG. In addition, mechanical improvements due to daily exercise may provide an indirect, but essential, effect of the brace on TUG performance.

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