Clinical orthopaedics and related research
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The winter athlete is faced with the hazards of injuries from exposure to low temperatures. Physicians who treat winter sports trauma must be prepared to manage the spectrum of these injuries including hypothermia, frostbite, and the combination of both. ⋯ Spontaneous thawing with further injury to insensitive frostbitten members and refreezing injuries give a poor prognosis. The management of hypothermia and frostbite is directed first to hypothermia to lessen mortality and second to frostbite to decrease the morbidity.
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One hundred patients had major shoulder surgery with interscalene brachial and cervical plexus block anesthesia. Successful anesthesia was obtained by using this method in 82 patients. Failure was the result of incomplete anesthesia in 16 patients or the presence of a complication. ⋯ The block lasted a mean of eight hours, decreasing the need for postoperative analgesic medications. No postoperative medical complication developed. Ninety-one percent of the patients with successful blocks were satisfied with the procedure.
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An analysis of 135 consecutive shoulder injuries seen in one clinic during a single ski season revealed anterior dislocation to be the most common ailment, constituting 52% of the total. Rotator cuff tears accounted for 20% of the total, followed by acromioclavicular (AC) separations (18%) and a miscellaneous group of contusions and isolated fractures comprising the other 10%. All of the shoulder dislocations were anterior, most were primary (81%) and men (83%) were involved more frequently. ⋯ Sixty percent were first degree, 22% were second degree, and 18% were third degree. About one-third of the respondents with first and second degree injuries were still having significant pain at three-year follow-up examination. The most frequent isolated fracture was a minimally displaced fracture of the greater tuberosity (only three cases in 135 injuries), but this same fracture occurred in 10% of the shoulder dislocations.