RESUMO
Osteoarthritis [OA] is the most common rheumatologic disorder and the knee is the most involved joint. There are several medications suggested to treat knee OA, each of them has some advantages and disadvantages. The goal of the current study was to compare the effect of piascledine and diclofenac on pain and function of the patients with knee OA. In this clinical trial, 60 patients with knee OA were randomly divided into two groups: piascledine [300 mg daily] and diclofenac [25 mg three times a day]. Patients were treated for 8 weeks. WOMAC score was completed for each patient, and pain was measured using VAS pre- and post-medication. Before the treatment the mean WOMAC score was 53.7 +/- 3.1 in piascledine group and 54.2 +/- 2.9 in diclofenac group; which increased to 64.3 +/- 4.1 and 62 +/- 4.4 after treatment, respectively. The mean WOMAC score was significantly higher in the piascledine group [P<0.05]. The mean of VAS in piascledine and diclofenac group was 6.5 +/- 2.2 and 7.1 +/- 2.1 pre-medication which decreased to 4.2 +/- 1.1 and 4.5 +/- 1.4 post-medication, respectively. There was not a statistically significant difference between the two groups after treatment in the means of VAS. No side effect seen in neither of the groups. Due to improvement in WOMAC score and better patient compliance because of once daily intake, piascledine can be an efficient substitute to NSAIDs in treatment of knee OA
RESUMO
Operations such as anterior or posterior releases can be used to decrease the magnitude of spinal curves. Concave rib osteotomy is an example of posterior release. Pulmonary complications are the main complications of this operation and the major cause of related morbidities. In this study, the frequency of pulmonary complications was evaluated. Pulmonary complications of concave rib osteotomies were studied in a series of 14 patients at Sina Hospital in a 2-year period [2001-2003]. Eight patients were females and 6 were males. During the operation, 3 cases of pleural tear were detected and chest tubes were inserted for them. No cases of pneumothorax and only 1 case of asymptomatic pleural effusion were detected postoperatively. This operation is a simple procedure. If the valsalva maneuver is used and pleural tears are detected intraoperatively, pulmonary morbidities will not increase significantly