The incidence of acute Achilles tendon ruptures in Sweden is increasing. The most probable reason for this increase is the rise in the number of older adults participating in high-demand sports. The proportion of surgically treated patients is decreasing most likely because of recent high-quality randomized controlled trials and their meta-analyses supporting similar results between surgical and nonsurgical approaches.

A striking shift from external fixation to plating in the treatment of distal radius fractures has occurred in Finland over the past few years, despite the fact that the scientific literature does not support plating over external fixation. In addition, the incidence and number of surgeries for distal radius fractures doubled between 1998 and 2008. The reasons for these changes are not known.