A Novel Ligamentous Complex in the Anteromedial Region of the Knee: A Cadaveric Study.

Background: The medial knee structures have a primary role in stabilizing valgus and rotational stress, which makes them important in assessing the ligament-injured knee globally and choosing the most adequate treatment. Purpose: To conduct a layer-by-layer dissection of the knee's anteromedial side and provide a qualitative and quantitative description of the anatomy and histology of a ligament in the anteromedial region of the knee, which we have termed the anterior oblique ligament (AOL). Also, to describe the AOL relationship with what we have termed the medial cross-a ligament complex that stabilizes the medial pivot. Study Design: Descriptive laboratory study. Methods: A total of 35 fresh-frozen knees from transfemoral amputations that were exclusively performed for vascular reasons were dissected. Structures were identified after meticulous dissection, respecting the same protocol, measured with a digital caliper rule, and histologically studied for data. Results: The AOL was found in all dissected knees, with a mean length of 31.47 ± 5.06 mm. This structure presented a ligament histology with densely organized collagen fibrils. The medial cross was represented by the superficial medial collateral ligament, AOL (anterior region), and posterior oblique ligament. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the presence of a ligament in the anteromedial region of the knee, termed the AOL. This structure was in the anterior part of a ligament complex-the medial cross. Clinical Relevance: Studying and revisiting the medial compartment can provide important information for understanding joint instability and promoting better results in ligament reconstructions.

Anterior Cruciate and Anterior Oblique Ligament Reconstruction Using Hamstrings and Peroneus Longus' Anterior Half Grafts.

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are common in high school and college with an estimated 120,000 cases per year in the United States. Most sports injuries occur without direct contact, and knee valgus with external rotation of the foot is the most common movement. This movement may be related to the injury of the anterior oblique ligament located in the anteromedial quadrant of the knee. This technical note presents anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with extraarticular anteromedial reinforcement using hamstring and the anterior half of the peroneus longus grafts.

All-Inside Technique for Ramp Lesion Repair: Arthroscopic Suture With Knee Scorpion Suture Passer.

Ramp lesions are peripheral tears of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus that involve the meniscocapsular attachments. They are commonly associated with anterior cruciate ligament injury and frequently not diagnosed. There are several suture techniques for ramp lesions. However, most have a long learning curve to be performed adequately and to minimize the risks of neurovascular lesions, cartilage injury, as well as damage to the meniscotibial ligament and meniscus. Thus, as an alternative to minimize costs and provide adequate ramp lesion repair, we present a simple, easy-to-reproduce technique using a Scorpion Suture Passer and all-inside sutures, without the need to leave devices inside the knee, causing no additional lesions and making it less costly than conventional methods. Our technique, which consists of a biomechanically strong suture, with no internal devices, is cheaper, allows several sutures with the same thread and produces satisfactory clinical results.

Incidence of Meniscal Ramp Lesion in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructions.

Objective To evaluate the incidence and epidemiological profile of meniscal ramp lesions in patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery, and to determine the related risk factors. Methods In total, 824 patients undergoing ACL reconstruction surgery were retrospectively analyzed. Patients who presented medial meniscal instability were submitted to evaluation of the posteromedial compartment of the knee. In case of injury, surgical repair was performed. Potential risk factors associated with the lesions were analyzed. Results The overall incidence of ramp lesions in the population studied was of 10.6% (87 lesions in 824 patients). The multivariate analysis through the Chi-squared test showed that the presence of meniscal ramp lesions was significantly associated with the following risk factors: right laterality and chronic lesions. Gender, age and sports activity were not statistically significant. Soccer was the most frequent cause of ramp injuries related to sport, with 78.2% of the cases. However, it was not shown to be a risk factor. The annual incidence from 2014 to 2019 ranged from 4.0% to 20.6%. Conclusion The incidence of meniscal ramp lesions was of 10.6% in ACL reconstruction surgeries, being more frequent among patients with chronic lesions. The increasing annual incidence ranged from 4.0% in 2014 to 20.6% in 2019.

Incidence of Meniscal Ramp Lesion in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructions / Incidência de lesões da rampa meniscal nas reconstruções do ligamento cruzado anterior

Abstract Objective To evaluate the incidence and epidemiological profile of meniscal ramp lesions in patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery, and to determine the related risk factors. Methods In total, 824 patients undergoing ACL reconstruction surgery were retrospectively analyzed. Patients who presented medial meniscal instability were submitted to evaluation of the posteromedial compartment of the knee. In case of injury, surgical repair was performed. Potential risk factors associated with the lesions were analyzed. Results The overall incidence of ramp lesions in the population studied was of 10.6% (87 lesions in 824 patients). The multivariate analysis through the Chi-squared test showed that the presence of meniscal ramp lesions was significantly associated with the following risk factors: right laterality and chronic lesions. Gender, age and sports activity were not statistically significant. Soccer was the most frequent cause of ramp injuries related to sport, with 78.2% of the cases. However, it was not shown to be a risk factor. The annual incidence from 2014 to 2019 ranged from 4.0% to 20.6%. Conclusion The incidence of meniscal ramp lesions was of 10.6% in ACL reconstruction surgeries, being more frequent among patients with chronic lesions. The increasing annual incidence ranged from 4.0% in 2014 to 20.6% in 2019.

Resumo Objetivo Avaliar a incidência e o perfil epidemiológico das lesões da rampa meniscal nos pacientes submetidos a cirurgia de reconstrução do ligamento cruzado anterior (LCA), e determinar os fatores de risco relacionados. Métodos Foram analisados retrospectivamente 824 pacientes submetidos a cirurgia de reconstrução do LCA. Os pacientes que apresentaram instabilidade meniscal medial foram submetidos a avaliação do compartimento posteromedial do joelho. Em caso de lesão, o reparo cirúrgico foi realizado. Potenciais fatores de risco associados às lesões foram analisados. Resultados A incidência geral de lesões da rampa na população estudada foi de 10,6% (87 lesões em 824 pacientes). A análise multivariada pelo teste do Qui-quadrado demonstrou que a presença de lesões da rampa meniscal foi significativamente associada aos seguintes fatores de risco: lateralidade direita e lesões crônicas. Sexo, idade e atividade esportiva não foram estatisticamente significantes. O futebol foi a causa mais frequente de lesões da rampa relacionadas ao esporte, com 78,2% dos casos. No entanto, não se mostrou ser um fator de risco. De 2014 a 2019, a incidência anual variou de 4,0% a 20,6%. Conclusão A incidência das lesões da rampa meniscal foi de 10,6% nas cirurgias de reconstrução do LCA, sendo mais frequente em pacientes com lesões crônicas. A incidência anual foi crescente, e variou de 4,0%, em 2014, a 20,6%, em 2019.

Stroke Outcome Measurements From Electronic Medical Records: Cross-sectional Study on the Effectiveness of Neural and Nonneural Classifiers.

BACKGROUND: With the rapid adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs), there is an ever-increasing opportunity to collect data and extract knowledge from EMRs to support patient-centered stroke management. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to compare the effectiveness of state-of-the-art automatic text classification methods in classifying data to support the prediction of clinical patient outcomes and the extraction of patient characteristics from EMRs. METHODS: Our study addressed the computational problems of information extraction and automatic text classification. We identified essential tasks to be considered in an ischemic stroke value-based program. The 30 selected tasks were classified (manually labeled by specialists) according to the following value agenda: tier 1 (achieved health care status), tier 2 (recovery process), care related (clinical management and risk scores), and baseline characteristics. The analyzed data set was retrospectively extracted from the EMRs of patients with stroke from a private Brazilian hospital between 2018 and 2019. A total of 44,206 sentences from free-text medical records in Portuguese were used to train and develop 10 supervised computational machine learning methods, including state-of-the-art neural and nonneural methods, along with ontological rules. As an experimental protocol, we used a 5-fold cross-validation procedure repeated 6 times, along with subject-wise sampling. A heatmap was used to display comparative result analyses according to the best algorithmic effectiveness (F1 score), supported by statistical significance tests. A feature importance analysis was conducted to provide insights into the results. RESULTS: The top-performing models were support vector machines trained with lexical and semantic textual features, showing the importance of dealing with noise in EMR textual representations. The support vector machine models produced statistically superior results in 71% (17/24) of tasks, with an F1 score >80% regarding care-related tasks (patient treatment location, fall risk, thrombolytic therapy, and pressure ulcer risk), the process of recovery (ability to feed orally or ambulate and communicate), health care status achieved (mortality), and baseline characteristics (diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemia, and smoking status). Neural methods were largely outperformed by more traditional nonneural methods, given the characteristics of the data set. Ontological rules were also effective in tasks such as baseline characteristics (alcoholism, atrial fibrillation, and coronary artery disease) and the Rankin scale. The complementarity in effectiveness among models suggests that a combination of models could enhance the results and cover more tasks in the future. CONCLUSIONS: Advances in information technology capacity are essential for scalability and agility in measuring health status outcomes. This study allowed us to measure effectiveness and identify opportunities for automating the classification of outcomes of specific tasks related to clinical conditions of stroke victims, and thus ultimately assess the possibility of proactively using these machine learning techniques in real-world situations.

Saphenous nerve injury during harvesting of one or two hamstring tendons for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess whether harvesting of two hamstring tendons (semitendinosus and gracilis) has the same rate of nerve injury as harvesting of the semitendinosus tendon alone, used as a triple graft. METHODS: Changes in sensitivity relating to injury of the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve were evaluated in 110 patients six months after they underwent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using hamstring tendons. They were divided into two groups: one in which only the semitendinosus was used and the other, the semitendinosus and gracilis. RESULTS: The group in which only the semitendinosus was used as a graft presented a nerve injury rate of 36.1%. In the group in which the semitendinosus and gracilis tendons were used, 58.1% of the patients presented altered sensitivity. In the general assessment on all the patients, the nerve injury rate was 50.9%. CONCLUSION: Harvesting the semitendinosus alone and using it in triple form is a viable option for ACL reconstruction and may give rise to fewer nerve injuries relating to branches of the saphenous nerve.

OBJETIVO: Avaliar se a retirada dos dois tendões flexores (semitendíneo [ST] e grácil [GC]) tem o mesmo índice de lesão nervosa que a retirada isolada do tendão ST usado como enxerto triplo. MÉTODOS: Foi avaliada a alteração de sensibilidade relacionada à lesão do ramo infrapatelar do nervo safeno em 110 pacientes seis meses após serem submetidos à reconstrução do LCA com o uso dos tendões flexores, dividido num grupo no qual se usou somente o ST e outro com o ST e o GC. RESULTADOS: O grupo no qual se usou somente o ST como enxerto apresentou um índice de lesão nervosa de 36,1% e no grupo com os tendões ST e GC 58,1% dos pacientes tiveram alteração da sensibilidade. Na avaliação geral de todos os pacientes o índice de lesão nervosa foi de 50,9%. CONCLUSÃO: A retirada do ST isolado e usado de forma tripla é uma opção viável na reconstrução do LCA e pode ocasionar um menor número de lesão nervosa relacionada a ramos do nervo safeno.

Lesão do nervo safeno na retirada de 1 ou 2 tendões flexores na reconstrução do ligamento cruzado anterior / Saphenous nerve injury during harvesting of one or two hamstring tendons for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Avaliar se a retirada dos dois tendões flexores (semitendíneo [ST] e grácil [GC]) tem o mesmo índice de lesão nervosa que a retirada isolada do tendão ST usado como enxerto triplo. Métodos: Foi avaliada a alteração de sensibilidade relacionada à lesão do ramo infrapatelar do nervo safeno em 110 pacientes seis meses após serem submetidos à reconstrução do LCA com o uso dos tendões flexores, dividido num grupo no qual se usou somente o ST e outro com o ST e o GC. Resultados: O grupo no qual se usou somente o ST como enxerto apresentou um índice de lesão nervosa de 36,1% e no grupo com os tendões ST e GC 58,1% dos pacientes tiveram alteração da sensibilidade. Na avaliacão geral de todos os pacientes o índice de lesão nervosa foi de 50,9%. Conclusão: A retirada do ST isolado e usado de forma tripla é uma opção viável na reconstrução do LCA e pode ocasionar um menor número de lesão nervosa relacionada a ramos do nervo safeno.

The aim of this study was to assess whether harvesting of two hamstring tendons (semitendinosus and gracilis) has the same rate of nerve injury as harvesting of the semitendinosus tendon alone, used as a triple graft. METHODS: Changes in sensitivity relating to injury of the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve were evaluated in 110 patients six months after they underwent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using hamstring tendons. They were divided into two groups: one in which only the semitendinosus was used and the other, the semitendinosus and gracilis. RESULTS: The group in which only the semitendinosus was used as a graft presented a nerve injury rate of 36.1%. In the group in which the semitendinosus and gracilis tendons were used, 58.1% of the patients presented altered sensitivity. In the general assessment on all the patients, the nerve injury rate was 50.9%. CONCLUSION: Harvesting the semitendinosus alone and using it in triple form is a viable option for ACL reconstruction and may give rise to fewer nerve injuries relating to branches of the saphenous nerve.

Artroplastia acromioclavicular na síndrome do impacto / Acromiclavicular arthroplasty at the impingement syndrome

Os autores apresentam o resultado de cinco pacientes adultos com `impacto acromioclavicular' tratados com a ressecçao de 1cm distal da clavícula e liberaçao do ligamento coracoacromial, segundo a técnica de Watson. Todos os pacientes tinham exames radiológicos com alteraçoes degenerativas, além do exame clínico mostrando dor acromioclavicular com irradiaçao para a face lateral do braço. O alívio da dor foi considerado bom em quatro dos pacientes, havendo melhora significativa do grau de abduçao em todos os casos ao final do tratamento.