BACKGROUND Delayed sternal closure (DSC) after cardiac surgery is a therapeutic option in the treatment of the severely impaired heart in pediatric cardiac surgery. The results with the technique of DSC over a 4-year period are examined with regard to mortality and morbidity. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed records of 38 patients who had undergone DSC among 1100 congenital cardiac operati...

OBJECTIVE Sternal fracture is poorly characterised in children. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the mechanism, radiological characteristics, and accompanying injuries of sternal fracture in children. METHODS The study was retrospective. The records of all children who underwent plain radiography of the sternum, or computed tomography of the thorax after trauma, over a 40 mo...

QUESTION Do trunk stabilisation exercises reduce sternal separation and pain, and improve the quality and control of the performance of tasks in individuals with chronic sternal instability? DESIGN Randomised crossover study with concealed allocation and intention-to-treat analysis. PARTICIPANTS Nine individuals with chronic sternal instability following a median sternotomy for cardiac surg...

Nonunion fractures can cause severe dysfunction and are often difficult to treat mainly due to a poor understanding of their physiopathology. Although many aspects of impaired fracture healing have been extensively studied, little is known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to atrophic nonunion. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the pools and biological func...

Introduction Isolated, neglected medial malleolus nonunion cases are a rare entity in orthopedic literature. All studies (except one) have described the use of compression screws (with or without plates) for medial malleolar nonunion management. In acute fractures, tension band wiring (TBW) has shown excellent results both in biomechanical and in clinical studies. On the contrary, it has seldom...

We have investigated whether assessment of blood flow to the proximal scaphoid can be used to predict nonunion in acute fractures of the scaphoid. We studied 32 fractures of the scaphoid one to two weeks after injury, by dynamic fat-suppressed T1-weighted gradient-echo MRI after the intravenous administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine (0.1 mmol/kg body-weight). Steepest slope values (SSV) an...

Sternal foramina are a well-known variant anatomy of the sternum and carry the risk of life-threatening complications like pneumothorax or even pericardial/cardial punction during sternal biopsy or acupuncture. There have been numerous studies numerous studies examinimg prevalence of sternal foramina, but the study of the exact anatomical relationship to intrathoracic structures has received li...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Median sternotomy infections are a serious complication of cardiac surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the patient characteristics and operative variables that predict incidence of sternal infection, and possibly its severity. DESIGN Univariate and multivariate retrospective analysis comparing patient, operative, and post-operative data in patients with and wi...

AIM The purpose of this study was to assess rates of and risk factors for deep sternal wound infection after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. BACKGROUND Deep sternal wound infection is one of the most devastating complications of cardiac surgery, resulting in multiple operative and non-operative procedures and increased hospital costs. DESIGN A retrospective design using an existing...

OBJECTIVES We studied the influence of the number of sternotomy mechanical fixation points on deep sternal wound infection (DSWI). METHODS Between September 2007 and February 2011, 2672 patients underwent a standard peri-sternal wire closure following a median sternotomy for a first-time cardiac surgery. Data were collected during the study period. RESULTS The mean age of the patients was 6...