Skeletal maturation in Egyptian girls

The present study deals with the state of bone growth and skeletal maturation during the growth spurt in Egyptian girls. The study was carried out on 137 girls who were attending government school in Giza. Tanner's classification and the determination of the mean age of menarche were performed. All girls were radiographed for the assessment of bone age by 20-bone TW2 method. Skeletal age results showed that skeletal age was slightly less than the chronological age, showing very close results to chronological age, indicating that the girls were going well on the pathway of development. The skeletal age in this study does not advance the chronological age in the years of puberty, but is slightly lower than the corresponding chronological age and subsequently the mean menarcheal age was late. The skeletal age is very much needed in spinal deformities and some orthopaedic developmental conditions. Knowing the skeletal maturation in Egyptian girls will enable us to give an accurate prognosis for progression of spinal deformities and in choosing the line of treatment. We recommend a similar study to obtain the state of skeletal maturation in Egyptian boys

Functional bracing of recent fractures of the shaft of humerus

We treated forty-one cases of fracture of the shaft of the humerus with a functional brace consisting of a plaster of- Paris sleeve, that followed an initial peroid of immobilisation in a hanging cast [Average two weeks]. The average time to union was 10 weeks for closed fractures and 13 weeks for open fractures. 90% [37 patients] healed their fractures with less than 8° of varus or valgus angulation and [35% patients] healed with less than 8° of anterior or posterior angulations. Shortening, as-evaluated radiologically, was a mean of 1/2 centimeter. There were very minimal complications; one patient had a non- union, one had skin maceration and two elderly patients had transient inferior subluxalion of the shoulder. All patients had good functional results at follow- up with near normal ranges of elbow and shoulder motion. Because of the low morbidity and high rate of success, we concluded that functional bracing is the treatment of choice for diaphyseal fractures of the humerus

Surgical repair of ruptured calcaneal tendon

We have reviewed 35 patients after surgical repair of spontaneous rupture of the calcaneal tendon, and assessed the clinical results. All patients had a normal plantar flexion power at follow up. Complications were present in eight cases [23%]. Seven patients had wound problems [20%] and one case had a reflex sympathetic dystrophy [3%]. In the 21 patients who had surgery in the first 48 hours, complications occurred in 4 patients [19%]. On the other hand the 14 patients who had delayed surgery, complications occurred in 4 patients [29%]. It is therefore recommended that surgical repair for calcaneal tendon rupture should be done in the first 48 hours to lessen the incidence of complications