Despite being one of the most common injuries around the elbow, the optimal treatment of olecranon fractures is far from established and stimulates debate among both general orthopaedic trauma surgeons and upper limb specialists. It is almost universally accepted that stable non-displaced fractures can be safely treated nonoperatively with minimal specialist input. Internal fixation is recommended for the vast majority of displaced fractures, with a range of techniques and implants to choose from. However, there is concern regarding the complication rates, largely related to symptomatic metalwork resulting in high rates of implant removal. As the number of elderly patients sustaining these injuries increases, we are becoming more aware of the issues associated with fixation in osteoporotic bone and the often fragile soft-tissue envelope in this group. Given this, there is evidence to support an increasing role for nonoperative management in this high-risk demographic group, even in those presenting with displaced and/or multifragmentary fracture patterns. This review summarizes the available literature to date, focusing predominantly on the management techniques and available implants for stable fractures of the olecranon. It also offers some insights into the potential avenues for future research, in the hope of addressing some of the pertinent questions that remain unanswered.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2023;105-B(2):112–123.

‘Big data’ is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. Billions of dollars have been spent on attempts to build predictive tools from large sets of poorly controlled healthcare metadata. Companies often sell reports at a physician or facility level based on various flawed data sources, and comparative websites of ‘publicly reported data’ purport to educate the public. Physicians should be aware of concerns and pitfalls seen in such data definitions, data clarity, data relevance, data sources and data cleaning when evaluating analytic reports from metadata in health care.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:1571–6.

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the first Global Patient Safety Challenge in 2005 and introduced the ‘5 moments of hand hygiene’ in 2009 in an attempt to reduce the burden of health care associated infections. Many NHS trusts in England adopted this model of hand hygiene, which prompts health care workers to clean their hands at five distinct stages of caring for the patient. Our review analyses the scientific foundation for the five moments of hand hygiene and explores the evidence, as referenced by WHO, to support these recommendations. We found no strong scientific support for this regime of hand hygiene as a means of reducing health care associated infections. Consensus-based guidelines based on weak scientific foundations should be assessed carefully to prevent shifting the clinical focus from more important issues and to direct limited resources more effectively.

We recommend caution in the universal adoption of the WHO ‘5 moments of hand hygiene’ by orthopaedic surgeons and other health care workers and emphasise the need for evidence-based principles when adopting hospital guidelines aimed at promoting excellence in clinical practice.

Given the growing prevalence of obesity around the world and its association with osteoarthritis of the knee, orthopaedic surgeons need to be familiar with the management of the obese patient with degenerative knee pain. The precise mechanism by which obesity leads to osteoarthritis remains unknown, but is likely to be due to a combination of mechanical, humoral and genetic factors.

Weight loss has clear medical benefits for the obese patient and seems to be a logical way of relieving joint pain associated with degenerative arthritis. There are a variety of ways in which this may be done including diet and exercise, and treatment with drugs and bariatric surgery. Whether substantial weight loss can delay or even reverse the symptoms associated with osteoarthritis remains to be seen.

Surgery for osteoarthritis in the obese patient can be technically more challenging and carries a risk of additional complications. Substantial weight loss before undertaking total knee replacement is advisable. More prospective studies that evaluate the effect of significant weight loss on the evolution of symptomatic osteoarthritis of the knee are needed so that orthopaedic surgeons can treat this patient group appropriately.