Foot/Ankle News

Results from a recent study revealed that patients treated with percutaneous Kirschner wires were rarely prescribed postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis by attending physicians at orthopedic foot and ankle fellowships.

Bone defects in the lower extremities induce substantial burden for patients with trauma, infection or malignancy. A critical bone defect is a void that will not fill without an intervention. Generally, a circumferential loss of greater than 50% or a defect that is longer than 2 cm is considered critical in adult patients. However, these parameters are substantially influenced by individual components or factors related to the patient. These individual factors are compliance, adequate nutritional status, no smoking, no infection, absence of comorbidities, such as diabetes or hormone diseases (thyroid), corticosteroids and good soft tissue coverage. Hence, to start any therapeutic planning, a thorough analysis is critical in all patients with a lower extremity bone defect.

EFORT Open Reviews (EOR) is the new open access journal from EFORT and Bone & Joint Publishing. All articles are free to read online with no subscription required. Have you read these articles yet?

For patients with rheumatoid arthritis, characteristics of the foot and ankle are not correlated with falls, independent of previous falls, according to recent findings. In a 12-month, prospective, observational study, researchers enrolled eligible participants from three rheumatology outpatient clinics in the Auckland region of the North Island in New Zealand. Participants were aged 18 years or older and had a diagnosis of RA according to the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) classification criteria.

A 17-year-old female high school soccer player with no medical comorbidities presented to clinic with right ankle pain that progressively worsened in the past 6 months. For 4 years, she had been diagnosed by her primary care physician and athletic trainers as having recurrent ankle sprains and ankle instability. The patient had been treated with multiple rounds of orthotics, ankle bracing, tall controlled ankle motion (CAM) boots, physical therapy and NSAID, with minimal benefit. The patient reported pain particularly with cutting maneuvers during soccer and when she tried to move her ankle side-to-side.

Since 1995, EFORT organizes two travelling fellowships per year: one in the spring and one in the fall. Each national association can nominate one candidate at the end of his or her orthopaedic training. There is a maximum of 14 candidates and this year and I was fortunate enough to be one of these candidates.

The EFORT Congress Awards are selected among the many high-quality papers and posters presented at the congress. The best-rated free papers had the opportunity to compete for the “EFORT Free Paper Award.”

EFORT Open Reviews is the new open access journal from EFORT and Bone & Joint Publishing. All articles are free to read online with no subscription required. Have you read these articles yet?

Paragon 28 announced the launch of the JAWS nitinol staple system for osteotomy, arthrodesis and fragment fixation of the foot, according to a company press release.