Pedicle screw (PS) insertion has been critised for its risk of serious injury to neurovascular structures. Although computed tomography (CT)-based navigation has been developed to avoid such complications, perforation remains an issue, even with the aid of additional guidance. We clarify screw perforation rate and direction in 359 consecutive patients treated using CT-based PS insertion and present important considerations for more accurate screw placement.

The medical records of 359 consecutive patients who underwent PS insertion involving C2-L5 using a CT-based navigation system were reviewed. Postoperative CT images were analysed to evaluate the accuracy of screw placement. We investigated both rate and direction of screw perforation according to vertebral level.

Of the 3413 PS that were inserted, 3.0% (104/3413) were judged as Grade 3 (more than 4mm) perforations. Allover perforation rates by vertebral level were shown in Table 1. The rate of these perforations was 5.0% for C2, 7.8% for C3–5, 3.9% for C6–7, 3.4% for T1–4, 3.5% for T5–8, 1.4% for T9–12, and 1.7% for L1–5. We also analysed the odds ratio (OR) for screw perforation in vertebrae accounting for the effects of age and disease. Multivariate analysis identified that PS insertions at C3–5 (OR 4.9, 95% CI 2.2–10.9; p<0.001) were significantly associated with Grade 3 screw perforation as compared with that of L1–5.

Even with CT-based navigation, careful insertion of PS is needed in the middle cervical spine because of a significantly higher perforation rate as compared with the lumbar region.

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Mobile-bearing (MB) total knee prostheses have been developed to achieve lower contact stress and higher conformity than fixed-bearing total knee prostheses. However, little is known about the in vivo kinematics of MB prostheses especially about the motion of polyethylene insert (PE). And the in vivo motion of PE during squat motion has not been clarified. The objective of this study is to clarify the in vivo motion of MB total knee arthroplasty including PE during squat motion. Patients and methods: We investigated the in vivo knee kinematics of 11 knees (10 patients) implanted with PFC-Sigma RPF (DePuy). Under fluoroscopic surveillance, each patient did a wight-bearing deep knee bending motion. And motion between each component was analyzed using two-to three-dimensional registration technique, which uses computer-assisted design (CAD) models to reproduce the spatial position of the femoral, tibial components, and PE (implanted with four tantalum beads intra-operatively) from single-view fluoroscopic images. We evaluated the range of motion between the femoral and tibial components, axial rotation between the femoral component and PE, the femoral and tibial component, and the PE and tibial component, and AP translation of the nearest point between the femoral and tibial component and between the femoral component and PE.

Results: The mean range of hyper-extension was 2.1° and the mean range of flexion of 121.2°. The femoral component relative to the tibial component demonstrated 10.4° external rotation for 0–120 degrees flexion. The tibial component rotated 10.2° externally relative to the PE and the femoral component minimally rotated relative to the PE within ± 5 degrees. In upright standing position, the femoral component already rotated externally relative to the tibial component in 6.3°, and the PE also rotated on average 6.4° externally on the tibial tray. Typically the femoral component relative to the tibial component exhibited a central pivot pattern external rotation from extension to 80° knee flexion. Subsequently from 80 to 120°, bilateral condyles moved backward. In a similar fashion, the femoral component relative to the PE exhibited a central pivot pattern external rotation from extension to 70° knee flexion and subsequently bicondylar rollback from 70 to 120° knee flexion.

Discussion and Conclusion: In this study, we evaluated the in vivo motion of PE during squat motion. About this total knee prosthesis, the mobile-bearing mechanism which advantages over fixed-bearing prosthesis to reduce contact stress and keep high comformity might work well, and arc of range of motion was maintained. Furthermore, in upright standing position, the femoral component and tibial component already rotated externally relative to the PE in almost equal measure. This indicated that, self-aligning mechanism, another characteristic of the MB prosthesis might also work well.

We report an artificial elbow joint with a novel type radial component that we have designed that is now at the stage of trial production.

The humeral component is a trochlea capitulum replacement type with a stem. The ulnar component with a stem has an articular surface distributed not only on the trochlea surface but also on the capitulum surface of the humeral component, and has another concave articular surface toward the radial component. The radial component also has a stem and has a spherical convex articular surface. This surface of the radial component does not assume the conventional anatomical morphology, but the convexity is designed to fit the concave articular surface of the ulnar component. In other words, the new artificial elbow joint is a functionally dissociated type, in which flexion-extension is achieved by the humeroulnar joint while rotation is done via the radioulnar joint. The newly designed artificial joint was used to replace the cadaveric elbow joint. Radiographic studies were conducted to observe the compatibility of each component during extension-flexion and rotationmovements.

By replacing the cadaveric elbow joint with the newly designed artificial elbow joint and performing manual extension-flexion simultaneous with pronation-supination, the flexion positions of the humeral component and ulnar component were not affected, and stable compatibility was obtained for the radial component and ulnar component.

Artificial elbow joints with a radial component have been reported by various authors. However, since the humeroradial joint possesses two movement axes for both flexion-extension and rotation, good compatibility with the humeroulnar joint is necessary. Aradial component that simply adopts the anatomical morphology does no tachieve good humeroradial joint compatibility. The functionally dissociated artificial elbow joint that we have designed is expected to offer a clue to solve these problems.

We have developed bioactive bone cements manufactured from bioactive glass-ceramic powder and BIS-GMA resin, which has the bone-bonding ability. In the present clinical trial, this bioactive bone cement was used for fixation of total hip arthroplasty (THA) and the clinical results were investigated

Two types of bioactive bone cements (high- and low- viscosity type cements) were prepared (Nippon Electric Glass Co. Ltd.). Inorganic filler contained 72.0 wt% AW-GC (apatite and wollastonite containing glass-ceramic) and 27.0 wt% SiO2 powder. All surgery was performed at Kyoto University Hospital between February and October 1996. 20primary THA (20 patients) were performed using bioactive bone cement as a clinical trial. The average age of the patients was 58 years. The average follow-up period was 6 years, 9 months. The diagnosis for 18 hips at the operation was osteoarthritis and 2 hips were rheumatoid arthritis. All sockets and one stem were fixed by bioactive cement, and all but one stem were fixed by PMMA cement. In all cases all polyethylene socket and titanium stem were used (14 KC type THA and 8 KMAX type THA). For the femoral head 22 mm diameter alumina head was used in all cases.

If the bone cement is bioactive and shows direct bonding with the bone, wear particles can’t enter the interface and thus prevention of loosening due to bone resorption would be expected. This cement demonstrated satisfactory clinical results, proving to be a promising material for implant fixation.

We present a case of septic arthritis of the hip caused by Candida albicans in a 24-year-old woman. This is the first report of a Candida infection of the hip in a patient without any predisposing factors. She underwent a two-stage total hip arthroplasty three years after the onset of the infection. An elevated plasma level of β-D-glucan suggested Candida as the infecting organism and the diagnosis might have been made earlier if this test had been undertaken at presentation.

We examined the behaviour of alumina ceramic heads in 156 cemented total hip arthroplasties, at a minimum follow-up of eight years. They were divided into three groups according to the size of the femoral head; 22, 26, and 28 mm. We measured polyethylene wear radiologically using a computer-aided technique. The linear wear rate of polyethylene sockets for the 28 mm heads was high (0.156 mm/year), whereas those for the 22 and 26 mm heads were relatively low (0.090 and 0.098 mm/year, respectively). Moreover, the surface roughness data of retrieved femoral heads clearly showed maintenance of an excellent surface finish of the current alumina. We conclude that the alumina ceramic femoral heads currently used are associated with a reduced rate of polyethylene wear.