ORTHOPEDICS THIS WEEK VOLUME 13 , ISSUE 38 | DECEMBER 5 , 2017 18
treatment options with minimal safety and tolerability issues , and should substantially improve short- and long-term success rate of endoprosthetic device surgeries . Especially in elderly patients with bone disorders such as osteoporosis or arthrosis who have poor bone regenerative potential , such a strategy should result in better osseointegration , lower risk for aseptic loosening and a reduced number of revision surgeries .” — EH
LARGE JOINTS
Arthritis Prevalence 69 % Higher Than Previously Thought
Turns out that the U . S . is in much worse shape than we thought when it comes to arthritis .
Traditional estimates have been based on a one-question survey , asking patients if they recall having been told by a healthcare provider that they have arthritis . New research , however , takes into account doctor-diagnosed arthritis , chronic joint symptoms , and whether the symptoms exceeded three months .
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The article , “ Updated Estimates Suggest a Much Higher Prevalence of Arthritis in US Adults Than Previous Ones ,” appears in the November 27 , 2017 edition of Arthritis & Rheumatology .
David T . Felson , M . D ., M . P . H . professor of medicine with the Boston University School of Medicine and co-author on the study along with S . Reza Jafarzadeh , D . V . M ., M . P . V . M ., Ph . D . told OTW , “ We thought arthritis prevalence was likely to be underestimated , especially in those under age 65 given recent increases in total knee arthroplasty and other orthopedic procedures in this age group .”
“ We used the same source of data on arthritis prevalence that had been used by others but noted that the questions from a national survey relied only on one question about doctor diagnosed arthritis and that many persons under age 65 with verified arthritis had been missed by this question . Using other questions from the survey about joint pain lasting for three months , we updated estimates .”
The overarching finding , says Dr . Felson : “ The prevalence of arthritis is 69 % higher than previous estimates .”
In the November 27 , 2017 news release , the authors wrote , “ The prevalence of arthritis was 29.9 percent in men aged 18-64 years , 31.2 percent in women aged 18-64 years , 55.8 percent in men aged 65 years and older , and 68.7 percent in women aged 65 years and older . Arthritis affected 91.2 million US adults ( 36.8 percent of the population ) in 2015 , which included 61.1 million persons between 18-64 years ( 31.6 percent of the population ).” — EH
SPORTS MEDICINE
NFL Careers Shortened by Injury Even After Surgery
Often times in sports medicine , athletes see surgical repair of their injury as the quickest and most effective way to get them back in the game , and while that is often true , a recent study by Houston Methodist Orthopedics and Sports Medicine suggests that even after surgical repair some athletes still play fewer games and have shorter career spans .
Wikimedia Commons and Pats
In “ Performance and Return to Sport After Forearm Fracture Open Reduction and Internal Fixation in National Football League Players ” published in the August 2017 issue of HAND , Joshua D . Harris , M . D ., a Houston Methodist Orthopedics surgeon and colleagues investigated how well open reduction and internal fixation ( ORIF ) of a forearm fracture sped up recovery and decreased missed games in the National Football League ( NFL ).
The researchers compared NFL players who underwent ORIF of a forearm fracture while in the NFL to matched con-
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