Clinical orthopaedics and related research
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Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res. · Oct 2003
Mortality after reamed intramedullary nailing of bilateral femur fractures.
We performed retrospective review of 743 patients treated with reamed intramedullary nailing of a femoral shaft fracture was done to assess the clinical impact of bilateral femur fractures on the mortality, hospital stay, and length of intensive care treatment in patients with blunt trauma. Unilateral injuries occurred in 689 patients and bilateral injuries occurred in 54 patients. Mortality in patients with bilateral femur fractures was 5.6% compared with 1.5% in patients with unilateral femur fractures. ⋯ As expected, when analyzed separately, patients with bilateral femur fractures had significantly higher Injury Severity Scores, longer lengths of stay in the intensive care unit, and longer lengths of stay in the hospital. Patients with bilateral femur fractures have an increased mortality when compared with patients with unilateral femur fractures after controlling for Injury Severity Score and age. When used alone, the Injury Severity Score underestimates the contribution of a second femur fracture.
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Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res. · Oct 2003
Publication rates of abstracts presented at annual musculoskeletal tumor society meetings.
Beware of the unpublished abstract. What is the publication rate of abstracts presented at Musculoskeletal Tumor Society meetings, and how does this compare with other orthopaedic and medical meetings? Three hundred thirty-six podium presentations from six annual meetings were identified and their publication was searched at a minimum of 3 years after the event. An effort was made to determine what percent of these abstracts eventually were published in a peer-reviewed journal. ⋯ The rate of publication and time until publication was similar to other orthopaedic meetings and to other medical disciplines. Changes to the cohort, title, or authors occurred in approximately (1/3) of the published articles compared with the abstracts. These results suggest that for various reasons the majority of presented material at Musculoskeletal Tumor Society meetings may not survive peer review and may not be scientifically valid.