Objective To investigate the surgical techniques and the cl inical outcomes of treating severe pronationexternal rotation ankle fractures combined with deltoid l igament injuries. Methods Between July 2005 and April 2007, 17 patients with grade-IV pronation-external rotation ankle fractures combined with deltoid l igament injuries were treated by open reduction and internal fixation with l igament repair by using suture anchors. There were 13 males and 4 femaleswith an average age of 36.5 years (21-56 years). All cases were closed injuries with l imitation of motion after initial physical examination. The X-ray and CT showed that all patients were characterized with lateral and posterior malleolus fractures and significant lateral shift of talus, but without medial malleous fracture before operation. All fractures were classified into grade-IV pronation- external rotation or type C according to Lauge-Hansen criterion and Danis-Weber standard respectively. The disease course was from 4 days to 7 days with an average of 5.6 days. Results All incisions healed by first intention Seventeen patients were followed up 11-24 months (mean 15.6 months). The X-ray films showed that all patients achieved bony heal ing. The heal ing time was 11-16 weeks (mean 14.8 weeks). According to the Baird-Jackson’s scoring system, the results were excellent in 5 cases, good in 9 cases, fair in 2 cases and poor in 1 case, the excellent and good rate was 82.4%. No operation compl ication occurred. Medial clear space was significantly decreased postoperatively compared with that before operation [(3.16 ± 0.37) mm vs. (4.87 ± 0.43) mm] (P lt; 0.01). In gravity stress radiographs, there was no significant difference in medial clear space between collateral ankle and injured ankle after operation [(3.47 ± 0.43) mm vs. (3.55 ± 0.44) mm] (P gt; 0.05). Conclusion It is emphasized that full attention should be given to reconstruction of medial l igament structures as well as open reduction and internal fixation in treating grade-IV pronation-external rotation ankle fractures combined with deltoid l igament injuries.
ObjectiveTo observe the clinical efficacy of temperature-controlled self-heated pain relief plasters in the treatment of chronic nonspecific lower back pain, and to investigate the quality of life of patients. MethodsPatients with chronic nonspecific lower back pain were randomly divided into a trial group and a control group. The trial group was treated with temperature-controlled self-heated pain relief plasters, while the control group was treated with meloxicam tablets for oral use. The outcome measures including the visual analogue pain scale (VAS), Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores for the management of lower back pain, and Oswestry disability index (ODI score) were collected before treatment and after 6-month follow-up. SPSS 13.0 software was used for statistical analysis. ResultsA total of 96 patients was included (48 patients in each group), of which 68 patients (36 in the trial group and 32 in the control group) completed the treatment. The results of intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses showed that the total effectiveness rate of the trial group was higher than that of the control group with significant differences (all P values < 0.05). Compared with those before treatment, the JOA scores and ODI scores of the two groups were all improved after 6-month follow-up (all P values < 0.05). But no significant difference was found between the two groups in the two scores after 6-month follow-up (all P values > 0.05). During the follow-up, there were 3 and 8 patients with recurrence of lower back pain in the trial group and the control group, respectively. ConclusionThe clinical effect of temperature-controlled self-heated pain relief plasters in the treatment of chronic nonspecific lower back pain is satisfactory, the quality of life of patients is improved obviously, and the therapy is simple, safe, inexpensive, and worthy of clinical promotion.
ObjectivesTo systematically review the association between pretreatment serum ferritin (SF) concentration and prognosis in lung cancer patients.MethodsDatabases including PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data were electronically searched to identify cohort studies on the relationship between the pretreatment SF concentration and prognosis of lung cancer patients from inception to January, 2020. Literature screening, data extraction and quality evaluation of included studies were independently performed by two reviewers. Then, meta-analysis was conducted by Stata 12.0 software.ResultsA total of 8 cohort studies involving 1 002 lung cancer patients were included. The results of meta-analysis indicated that patients with higher pretreatment SF concentration had poorer overall survival (HR=1.70, 95%CI 1.06 to 2.73, P=0.029) compared with patients with lower pretreatment SF concentration. Subgroup analysis based on the pathological type manifested showed that pretreatment SF concentration only had high prognostic value in small cell lung cancer patients (HR=4.78, 95%CI 2.83 to 8.05, P<0.001).ConclusionsLung cancer patients with high pretreatment SF level have worse overall survival. Pretreatment SF concentration may serve as an independent prognostic factor in lung cancer, especially in small cell lung cancer. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, more prospective well-designed studies are required to verify above conclusions.
Objective To investigate the influence of hypoxic preconditioning on pulmonary structure of rats exposed to simulated high altitude hypoxia and to explore the role of hypoxia inducible factor-1α（HIF-1α）.Methods Fifty-six Wistar rats were randomly divided into 7 groups(n=8 in each group),ie,a normal control group(N group)，an acute hypoxic control group(H0 group)，an acute hypoxic group(H1 group)，a 3 000 m hypoxic preconditioning group(C3.0 group)，a 3 000 m hypoxic preconditioning + acute hypoxic group (C3.1 group)，a 5 000 m hypoxic preconditioning group(C5.0 group)，and a 5 000 m hypoxic preconditioning + acute hypoxic group(C5.1 group).After treated with hypoxic preconditioning，the animals were exposed to simulated altitude of 6 000 m for 24 hours.Then the protein and mRNA expression of HIF-1α in lung of N，H0，C3.0 and C5.0 groups were assessed by Western blot and RT-PCR，respectively.The lung structure in N，H1，C3.1 and C5.1 groups was observed by light microscope and electron microscope.Results Pulmonary interstitial edema was apparently observed in H1 group，while significantly relieved in two hypoxic preconditioning groups.HIF-1α protein was not detected in rat lungs by Western blot analysis.Compared to N group，the levels of HIF-1α mRNA significantly increased in C3.0 group and C5.0 group(both Plt;0.01).Conclusions Hypoxic preconditioning can relieve hypoxic pulmonary interstitial edema and increase HIF-1α mRNA expression in rat lungs.HIF-1 may be involved in the process of hypoxic preconditioning in rat lungs.