Injury
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The Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) movement, undoubtably one of the most successful movements in medicine, questions dogma and "clinical authority" and combines the "best available evidence" with clinical expertise and patient values in order to provide the best care for the individual patient. Although since its inception in the 1990s its strong theoretical foundations remain unaltered, a lot has changed in its practical implementation due to the electronic explosion of information and the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. The purpose of this article is to succinctly provide the reader with an update on the major changes in EBM, including the important most recent ones that were "fast-tracked" due to the COVID-19 challenge.
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Fragility fractures of the pelvis (FFP) are a clinical entity with a rapidly growing incidence among elderly women. The characteristics of these fractures are different from those appearing after high-energy trauma. In 2013, the comprehensive FFP-classification provided a new framework for analysis of these fractures. ⋯ Mobility, independency and quality of life are worse than before the fracture, independent of the FFP-classification and the type of treatment. The classification triggered a rapid increase of expertise. This publication gives a detailed overview on the evolution from eminence to evidence.
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Systematic reviews, of level-I primary literature, are the gold standard for the formation of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Orthopaedic Surgery. When systematic reviews have multiple groups of data, meta-analyses can be conducted to analyse the direct comparison of the data points (pairwise meta-analysis). Over recent years, statisticians have created a new statistical model called network meta-analyses that can be applied to systematic reviews. network meta-analyses allow for comparison of different treatment outcomes that may or may not have been directly assessed through level-I primary studies. network meta-analyses are appearing more and more in Orthopaedic Surgery literature; therefore, in this article, we discuss what a Network Meta-analysis is and its application in Orthopaedics.
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The last two decades have seen the reintroduction of tourniquets into guidelines for the management of acute limb trauma requiring hemorrhage control. Evidence supporting tourniquet application has demonstrated low complication rates in modern military settings involving rapid evacuation timeframes. It is unclear how these findings translate to patients who have prolonged transport times from injury in rural settings. This scoping review investigates the relationship between time and distance on metabolic complications, limb salvage and mortality following tourniquet use in civilian and military settings. ⋯ This scoping review presents literature describing comparatively safe tourniquet application when used for less than two hours duration. However, there is limited research describing prolonged tourniquet application or when used for protracted distances, such that the impact of tourniquet release time on metabolic outcomes and complications remains unclear. Prospective studies utilizing the development of an international database to provide this dataset is required.