dynamic condylar screw: post-operative complications when used in distal femoral fracture among adults

Objective: To determine the post operative complications when distal femoral fractures in adults is fixed using dynamic condylar screw

Study design: Observational study

Place and duration of study: Study conducted in Orthopedics department, Dow OJHA Hospital and Civil Hospital Karachi, from July 2014 to December 2015

Methodology: Although patients' with simple and closed supracondylar fractures of the femur were treated by dynamic condylar screw system, however for this study inclusion criteria was patients having closed supracondylar fracture of the femur of either gender aged between 20 to 65 years and presented earlier. Follow up of all these patients was done. Data was analyzed by using SPSS statistical package version 20

Results: Out of 46 patients, 41[89.13%] patients were males and 5[10.86%] were females. Mean age of the patient in this study was 31.1+/-3.5 years. 33[71.73%] patients sustained injury following Road Traffic Accident [RTA], 7[15.21%] presented with history of assault and 6 [13.04%] patients sustained injury following fall. The post operative complications observed in this study was infection in 4[8.69%], shortening in 3[6.52%], deformities in 3[6.52%] cases, nonunion in 1[2.17%] case and implant failure in 2[4.34%] cases

Conclusion: Dynamic condylar screw may confidently be used in the management of supracondylar fractures. The procedure is technically manageable with minimum post operative complications

Comparison of student's self-assessment to examiners assessment in a formative observed structured clinical examination: a pilot study

To compare students' self-assessment with assessment by examiners in a formative observed structured clinical examination [OSCE] and comparison between cumulative score and global rating scale for students and faculty evaluation. This cross sectional study was carried out on 6[th] year medical students of Oman Medical College, Family Medicine rotation in a formative OSCE. A self-assessment questionnaire was completed by 15, Year 6 students immediately after the OSCE. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS 16.0 for Windows. Regression analysis was used to correlate self reported rating and actual performance in each station. A p value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Correlation between cumulative score and global rating scale for students and faculty evaluation was calculated by Pearson correlation. Students has done appropriate self-assessment on dyspepsia history while the other two stations have shown some discrepancies in self-assessment and examiners assessment. Self-assessment is comparable to examiner evaluation. Examiners assessment has shown consistent and positive correlation between cumulative scores and global rating scores while students had failed to show this consistency