The Use of a High-Tech Knee Pad for Reduction of the Postoperative Effusion after Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Purpose After total knee arthroplasty (TKA), pain and swelling, especially in older and less cooperative patients, can limit the retrieval of a good range of motion and muscle tone and consequently the achievement of an optimal function outcome. A high-tech knee pad made of metal fibers emitting infrared energy was used in a group of patients undergoing TKA to assess its efficacy in the postoperative period with respect to a group with a placebo. Methods Twelve patients used knee pads after surgery for 3 weeks and were evaluated using visual analog scale (VAS), Knee Society Rating Score, Cincinnati Knee Rating Score, and painkillers at specific timings. Results At 3 weeks, all scores improved in a significant manner in the treated group compared with the placebo group. At 2 months after surgery, VAS was better in the study group than the control group, whereas other parameters were similar. However, the use of rescue drugs was less in the study group than in the placebo group. Conclusion A high-tech knee pad may contribute to a faster recovery within the first week after a knee replacement, limiting the use of painkillers and allowing a quick functional recovery by the control of pain and postoperative effusion. Level of Evidence Level II, randomized prospective study with small sample size.

Information security concepts and practices: the case of a provincial multi-specialty hospital.

In recent years, major and widely accepted information security understandings and achievements confirm that the problem is complex. They clarify that technologies are fundamental tools, but management processes have even bigger relevance, as also prestigious international magazines dossier clearly explained recently. Such a magazine attention outlines the wide impact that the subject has on watchful decision makers. ISO17799 is an emerging standard in information security. In principle there are no reasons for considering it not applicable to the health care sector. In practice, because of both the just conceptual level of the standard and the peculiarities of the health care data and institutions, a lot of analysis and design work need to be invested any time a health care institution decides to deal with the subject. CEN/ENV 12924 is another emerging standard certainly more on the spot of the health care. Nevertheless, it also asks for evident further investigation. The practical case of information security design, implementation, management, and auditing inside a multi-specialty provincial Italian hospital will be described.

Speak-eR: an audible web-based medical record for emergency patients.

Emergency conditions can inhibit the use of clinical data, even when it has been professionally collected and structured. Our aim is to improve the assessment of patients' medical histories in emergency situations. Under emergency conditions, when it may be impractical for health care providers to interact with a visual display of patient data, a "speaking" medical record may be useful. We are investigating the use of a voice synthesizer in conjunction with MyAngelWeb, an Italian web-based medical record service. Only the textual subset of patient medical records was considered and restructured according to the needs imposed by voice communication. The quality of the received messages was tested. Some quantitative features, including the number of words and time durations, were considered together with other subjective features, including intelligibility of single words and overall significance of the voice messages. Provided that the linguistic architecture of a medical records' text is arranged to minimize the number of choices presented to the user, and phrases are kept short with few acronyms, health care providers can satisfactorily interact with the service.. Audible medical record delivery may be considered as an effective enhancement to those datasets needed in emergencies.