The American journal of sports medicine
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The International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Evaluation Form is a knee-specific instrument composed of 18 questions. It is commonly used in adult and pediatric studies as a surgical outcome measure. Normative data exist for an adult population, but there have been no published normative results for younger subjects. ⋯ This study provides pilot normative data for mean International Knee Documentation Committee scores in a preadolescent population. The mean score in this younger cohort is consistent with normative data of adults age 35 years or younger. Although the International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Evaluation Form is often used in adolescent surgical studies, its validity in these populations remains to be established. Further work to establish the psychometric properties of the current form in younger age groups would be of significant benefit to clinicians.
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No studies to date have evaluated the injury patterns in professional arena football. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of general injury patterns in the Arena Football League. ⋯ Game injury rates are higher than are practice injury rates. Athletes playing on both offense and defense did not have higher injury rates in games than did athletes playing either offense or defense. The sideline boards used in the Arena Football League did not appear to contribute dramatically to the injury rates. Despite the differences between arena and stadium football, Arena Football League injury patterns are similar to published collegiate football injury patterns.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Early motion for Achilles tendon ruptures: is surgery important? A randomized, prospective study.
Comparisons of surgically and nonsurgically treated Achilles tendon ruptures have demonstrated that those treated with surgery allow earlier motion and tend to show superior results. However, early motion enhances tendon healing with or without surgery and may be the important factor in optimizing outcomes in patients with Achilles tendon rupture. ⋯ This study supports early motion as an acceptable form of rehabilitation in both surgically and nonsurgically treated patients with comparable functional results and a low rerupture rate. There appears to be no difference between the 2 groups, suggesting that controlled early motion is the important part of treatment of ruptured Achilles tendon.
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Fresh human osteochondral allografting is a biological cartilage replacement technique used to treat articular and osteoarticular defects in the knee. A small number of grafts fail, and we analyzed every retrieved graft during a 4-year period in order to learn more about the potential causes of failure. ⋯ Fresh osteochondral allografting is becoming more common in the treatment of articular cartilage defects in the knee. Our findings support the paradigm of fresh osteochondral allografting, the transplantation of hyaline cartilage with biological incorporation of the underlying bone scaffold. The reasons for failure of a small percentage of grafts remain unclear.
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One significant disadvantage of autologous osteochondral mosaicplasty (mosaicplasty) is the harvesting of osteochondral grafts from the normal articular area of the knee joint. However, the effect of harvesting grafts on knee function remains unclear. ⋯ No adverse effects of osteochondral graft harvest on donor knee function were found after mosaicplasty for capitellar osteochondritis dissecans in young athletes. However, magnetic resonance imaging indicates that the donor site is resurfaced with fibrous tissue.