Prosthetic joint replacement of the elbow is, with some delay in comparison with the shoulder, the finger joints and especially the hip and knee joint, becoming a routine operation at least in more specialised orthopedic and trauma centers. In the seventies and eighties, more than 80% of the indications were in patients affected by rheumatoid arthritis, in which both sides were typically affect...

Kinematic analysis for in vivo assessment of elbow endoprostheses requires knowledge of the exact positions of motion axes relative to bony landmarks or the prosthesis. A prosthesis-based reference system is required for comparison between individuals and studies. The primary aim of this study was to further develop an earlier described algorithm for fusion of radiostereometric analysis (RSA) d...

Swanson silicone implant is the "gold standard" of metacarpophalangeal joint reconstruction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. However, durability problems of silicone implants have led us to develop a new technique based on bioreconstructive implants. PLA96 (poly-L,D-lactide copolymer, L:D ratio of 96:4) scaffolds were engineered. Bioabsorption and substitution of porous PLA96 scaffold wit...

With lymph node enlargement, the possibility of a malignant process such as metastatic carcinoma or lymphoma needs to be excluded. This report describes a 47 year old woman with inguinal lymph node enlargement initially suspicious for lymphoma. Fine needle aspiration findings favoured reactive hyperplasia, but a malignant process could not be excluded. The final histological diagnosis was a for...

Computer simulation has found extensive applications in biomedical engineering. In particular, finite element methods have been used in orthopaedic biomechanics to help design prostheses and implants and understand joint injuries and diseases. We are interested in the mechanics of the knee joint that is associated with the fluid pressure and flow in the articular cartilages and menisci. This se...

To determine the extent to which recent advances in biomechanical technology have been implemented and to evaluate these new technologies, 84 unilateral above knee (A/K) amputees and their prostheses were surveyed in the Chugoku-Shikoku district of Japan, especially in regard to the types, sockets and components of A/K prostheses currently in use. Background factors such as age and sex of the A...

We describe a case of Salmonella enteritidis infection of a prosthetic knee joint that was cured with ceftriaxone therapy for 6 weeks and replacement of the tibial component of the prosthesis. Eleven other cases of salmonella prosthetic joint infection have been reported in the English-language literature. Five infections occurred within 20 days of prosthesis placement, and seven occurred sever...

INTRODUCTION: Polyethylene wear is a recurrent problem in joint arthroplasty. In addition to permanent deformation or complete destruction of the component, small debris particles are also associated to inflammation reaction of the surrounding bone, eventually leading to the failure of the bound between the implant and the host bone, and implant loosening. In anatomic total shoulder arthroplast...

Human gait is characterized by periodic repetitions of two phases: a stance phase in which a foot is in contact with the ground, followed by a swing phase in which the lower limb swings through after toe-off. The functional necessities of above-knee prostheses are to provide knee locking during the stance phase and damping during the swing phase. Most of the conventional above-knee prostheses a...

Total elbow arthroplasty is used for the treatment of the painful, destroyed elbow joint. With the increase in elbow replacement surgery in recent years, the number of revision surgeries will also increase. At our center, 236 primary Souter-Strathclyde total elbow prostheses have been placed. Twenty-four of these have been revised and were followed up for a mean of 74 months (range, 12-165 mont...