Monthly Archives: May 2018

  Today's Top Story Report: Wide variation in costs found for joint replacement implants Consulting agency Premier assessed joint-replacement costs among 15 implant vendors and found what appeared to be wide variation. Among 350 hospitals studied, the average cost of primary knee implants was $4,464, but 50 percent of hospitals paid between $4,066 and $5,609 for the devices. In addition, those hospitals paid an average of $5,252 for primary hip implants, with 50 percent paying between $4,759 and [...]

  Today's Top Story Study: Malpositioning of FT in patients undergoing MPFL reconstruction may be associated with complications A study published online in The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery found that malpositioning of the femoral tunnel (FT) during medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) reconstruction may be associated with postoperative complications but may not result in unsatisfactory subjective or objective clinical outcomes. Researchers assessed 63 knees from 60 patients who underwent MPFL reconstruction between 1998 and 2012. The FT [...]

  Today's Top Story Study: Patient BMI and gender may increase the risk for sacral fractures after spinal fusion A study published online in The Spine Journal found that the odds of experiencing a sacral fracture were approximately six times higher for obese patients compared to normal or underweight patients undergoing posterior instrumented fusion at a single academic institution between 2002 and 2016. However, bone mineral density (BMD) was not significantly associated with the odds of experiencing a [...]

  Today's Top Story Study: Biomechanical CT may be as effective as DXA for identification of patients at high risk of hip fracture A study published online in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research compares the efficacy of biomechanical computed tomography (CT) and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in identifying patients at high risk of incident hip fracture. The researchers conducted a case-cohort trial of 111,694 patients aged ≥ 65 years who had a prior hip CT scan, [...]

  Today's Top Story Study: Injection drug use may be linked to an increase in septic knee admissions A study published online in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research reports that injection drug use may be related to septic knee admissions and is associated with higher rates of mortality, reoperations, resource utilization, and leaving the hospital against medical advice. The researchers used the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Nationwide Inpatient Sample database to identify patients aged 15 to 64 [...]