What's new in hip fractures? Current concepts

Hip fractures have been among the most studied injury patterns in adults. The number of hip fractures is increasing exponentially, and their treatment costs place great economic strain on society. Recently developed hip fracture treatments, emphasizing cost containment, deformity prevention, and evidence-based medicine, are attempts to optimize patient outcomes. In this article, we outline some of these developments with respect to femoral neck and intertrochanteric fractures.     

The effects of weather and seasonality on hip fracture incidence in older adults

This study examined the effect of weather and seasonality on hipfracture incidence in older adults residing in New York City. A total off 66,346 patients aged > or = 65 years who sustained a fracture of the femoralneck or intertrochanteric region from 1985 to 1996 comprised the study population. Hip fractures were more likely to occur in the winter than in any of the other seasons (P<.001). Factors significantly correlated with hip fractureincluded minimum daily temperature (r=.167, P<.001), daily wind speed (r=.166, P<.001), maximum daily temperature (r=.155, P<.001), minutes of sunshine (r=.067, P<.01), and average relative humidity (r=.033, P=.03). A greater number of hip fractures occurred in colder months, withambient temperature rather than any adverse circumstances related to rainor snowfall associated most closely to injury. As most fractures occurredindoors, precipitation is less likely to play a part in hip fracture occurrence in this population.     

In vivo determination of optical properties of normal and tumor tissue with white light reflectance and an empirical light transport model during endoscopy

Determination of tissue optical properties is fundamental for application of light in either therapeutical or diagnostics procedures. In the present work we implemented a spatially resolved steady-state diffuse reflectance method where only two fibers (one source and one detector) spaced 2.5 mm apart are used for the determination of the optical properties. The method relies on the spectral characteristics of the tissue chromophores (water, dry tissue, and blood) and the assumption of a simple wavelength dependent expression for the determination of the reduced scattering coefficient. Because of the probe dimensions the method is suited for endoscopic measurements. The method was validated against more traditional models, such as the diffusion theory combined with adding doubling for in vitro measurements of bovine muscle. Mean and standard deviation of the absorption coefficient and the reduced scattering coefficient at 630 nm for normal mucosa were 0.87+/-0.22 cm(-1) and 7.8+/-2.3 cm(-1), respectively. Cancerous mucosa had values 1.87+/-1.10 cm(-1) and 8.4+/-2.3 cm(-1), respectively. These values are similar to data presented by other authors. Blood perfusion was the main variable accounting for differences in the absorption coefficient between the studied tissues.