Lupus and Perioperative Complications in Elective Primary Total Hip or Knee Arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND: The number of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (herein, lupus) undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is increasing. There is disagreement about the effect of lupus on perioperative complication rates. We hypothesized that lupus would be associated with higher complication rates in patients who undergo elective primary THA or TKA. METHODS: Records of more than 6.2 million patients from the National Inpatient Sample who underwent elective primary THA or TKA from 2000 to 2009 were reviewed. Patients with lupus (n = 38,644) were compared with those without lupus (n = 6,173,826). Major complications were death, pulmonary embolism, myocardial infarction, stroke, pneumonia, and acute renal failure. Minor complications were wound infection, seroma, deep vein thrombosis, hip dislocation, wound dehiscence, and hematoma. Patient age, sex, duration of hospital stay, and number of Elixhauser comorbidities were assessed for both groups. Multivariate logistic regression models using comorbidities, age, and sex as covariates were used to assess the association of lupus with major and minor perioperative complications. The alpha level was set to 0.001. RESULTS: Among patients who underwent THA, those with lupus were younger (mean age, 56 vs. 65 years), were more likely to be women (87% vs. 56%), had longer hospital stays (mean, 4.0 vs. 3.8 days), and had more comorbidities (mean, 2.5 vs. 1.4) than those without lupus (all p < 0.001). In patients with THA, lupus was independently associated with major complications (odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1 to 1.7) and minor complications (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.0 to 1.5). Similarly, among patients who underwent TKA, those with lupus were younger (mean, 62 vs. 67 years), were more likely to be women (93% vs. 64%), had longer hospital stays (mean, 3.8 vs. 3.7 days), and had more comorbidities (mean, 2.8 vs. 1.7) than those without lupus (all p < 0.001). However, in TKA patients, lupus was not associated with greater odds of major complications (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 0.9 to 1.4) or minor complications (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 0.9 to 1.3). CONCLUSIONS: Lupus is an independent risk factor for major and minor perioperative complications in elective primary THA but not TKA.

The Association of Delirium with Perioperative Complications in Primary Elective Total Hip Arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND: Our goal was to determine whether postoperative delirium is associated with inpatient complication rates after primary elective total hip arthroplasty (THA). METHODS: Using the National Inpatient Sample, we analyzed records of patients who underwent primary elective THA from 2000 through 2009 to identify patients with delirium (n = 13,551) and without delirium (n = 1,992,971) and to assess major perioperative complications (acute renal failure, death, myocardial infarction, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, and stroke) and minor perioperative complications (deep vein thrombosis, dislocation, general procedural complication, hematoma, seroma, and wound infection). Patient age, sex, length of hospital stay, and number of comorbidities were assessed. We used multivariate logistic regression to determine the association of delirium with complication rates (significance, p < 0.01). RESULTS: Patients with delirium were older (mean, 75 ± 0.2 vs. 65 ± 0.1 years), were more likely to be male (56% vs. 52%), had longer hospital stays (mean, 5.7 ± 0.07 vs. 3.8 ± 0.02 days), and had more comorbidities (mean, 2.8 ± 0.03 vs. 1.4 ± 0.01) (all p < 0.001) versus patients without delirium. Patients with delirium were more likely to have major (11% vs. 3%) and minor (17% vs. 7%) perioperative complications versus patients without delirium (both p < 0.001). When controlling for age, sex, and number of comorbidities, delirium was independently associated with major and minor complications (odds ratio, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.7 to 2.3). CONCLUSIONS: Delirium is an independent risk factor for major and minor perioperative complications after primary elective THA.

Differences in Antipsychotic-Related Adverse Events in Adult, Pediatric, and Geriatric Populations.

In recent years, antipsychotic medications have increasingly been used in pediatric and geriatric populations, despite the fact that many of these drugs were approved based on clinical trials in adult patients only. Preliminary studies have shown that the "off-label" use of these drugs in pediatric and geriatric populations may result in adverse events not found in adults. In this study, we utilized the large-scale U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Events Reporting System (AERS) database to look at differences in adverse events from antipsychotics among adult, pediatric, and geriatric populations. We performed a systematic analysis of the FDA AERS database using MySQL by standardizing the database using structured terminologies and ontologies. We compared adverse event profiles of atypical versus typical antipsychotic medications among adult (18-65), pediatric (age < 18), and geriatric (> 65) populations. We found statistically significant differences between the number of adverse events in the pediatric versus adult populations with aripiprazole, clozapine, fluphenazine, haloperidol, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, and thiothixene, and between the geriatric versus adult populations with aripiprazole, chlorpromazine, clozapine, fluphenazine, haloperidol, paliperidone, promazine, risperidone, thiothixene, and ziprasidone (p < 0.05, with adjustment for multiple comparisons). Furthermore, the particular types of adverse events reported also varied significantly between each population for aripiprazole, clozapine, haloperidol, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone (Chi-square, p < 10-6). Diabetes was the most commonly reported side effect in the adult population, compared to behavioral problems in the pediatric population and neurologic symptoms in the geriatric population. We also found discrepancies between the frequencies of reports in AERS and in the literature. Our analysis of the FDA AERS database shows that there are significant differences in both the numbers and types of adverse events among these age groups and between atypical and typical antipsychotics. It is important for clinicians to be mindful of these differences when prescribing antipsychotics, especially when prescribing medications off-label.

Liposomal packaging generates Wnt protein with in vivo biological activity.

Wnt signals exercise strong cell-biological and regenerative effects of considerable therapeutic value. There are, however, no specific Wnt agonists and no method for in vivo delivery of purified Wnt proteins. Wnts contain lipid adducts that are required for activity and we exploited this lipophilicity by packaging purified Wnt3a protein into lipid vesicles. Rather than being encapsulated, Wnts are tethered to the liposomal surface, where they enhance and sustain Wnt signaling in vitro. Molecules that effectively antagonize soluble Wnt3a protein but are ineffective against the Wnt3a signal presented by a cell in a paracrine or autocrine manner are also unable to block liposomal Wnt3a activity, suggesting that liposomal packaging mimics the biological state of active Wnts. When delivered subcutaneously, Wnt3a liposomes induce hair follicle neogenesis, demonstrating their robust biological activity in a regenerative context.