Acta orthopaedica
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Loss to follow-up may bias the outcome assessments of clinical registries. In this study, we wanted to determine whether outcomes were different in responding and non-responding patients who were included in a clinical spine surgery registry, at two years of follow-up. In addition, we wanted to identify risk factors for failure to respond. ⋯ A loss to follow-up of 22% would not bias conclusions about overall treatment effects and, importantly, there were no indications of worse outcomes in non-respondents.
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Animal models of skeletal muscle injury should be thoroughly described and should mimic the clinical situation. We established a model of a critical size crush injury of the soleus muscle in rats. The aim was to describe the time course of skeletal muscle regeneration using mechanical, histological, and magnetic resonance (MR) tomographic methods. ⋯ At both the functional level and the morphological level, skeletal muscle regeneration follows a distinct time course. Our trauma model allows investigation of muscle regeneration after a standardized injury to muscle fibers.