Corrigendum to "Bilateral Proximal Tibia Stress Fractures through Persistent Physes".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2018/8181547.].

Bilateral Proximal Tibia Stress Fractures through Persistent Physes.

INTRODUCTION: Fatigue fractures are stress fractures resulting from repetitive trauma in areas of stress concentration. Prior case reports and studies have described stress fractures through persistent physes about the olecranon and distal fibula, as evidenced by hyaline cartilage on histologic analysis. However, there have been no documented proximal tibia stress fractures through persistent physes. CASE PRESENTATION: A 29-year-old military male basic trainee with varus alignment about his knees suffered bilateral medial tibial plateau stress fractures several weeks into military basic training. He underwent radiographic and laboratory evaluation of his stress fractures and eventual operative fixation of his bilateral tibial plateau fractures. Intraoperative specimens obtained from the fracture sites distal to the articular surface demonstrated abnormal fibrous appearing tissue. Histology demonstrated the presence of hyaline cartilage. DISCUSSION: A 29-year-old military male basic trainee had bilateral proximal tibia stress fractures through persistent physes confirmed with biopsies demonstrating hyaline cartilage. Our belief is that the patient's persistent physes placed him at a greater risk for stress fractures and these may benefit from fixation in soldiers and athletes.

Multimedia Campaign Enhances Orthopaedic Patient Perceptions of Health Care Quality: A Prospective Analysis of Effect at a Military Treatment Facility.

BACKGROUND: The importance of patient satisfaction as a measure of quality has grown with initiatives intended to enhance demand for services, refocus reimbursement paradigms, encourage health care efficiencies, and ultimately improve clinical outcomes. The purpose of our performance improvement project was to (1) characterize the effect of a two-pronged multimedia initiative on patient perceptions of health care quality and satisfaction as assessed by the Army Provider Level Satisfaction Survey (APLSS) and (2) assess for differences in APLSS scores between the surgeons that did and did not participate in the program. METHODS: Baseline APLSS data for our Department of Orthopaedic Surgery were collected and subsequently compared to APLSS results 3 months after the implementation of a department-wide multimedia campaign. The multimedia initiative consisted of two concurrently implemented interventions to the orthopaedic surgery outpatient clinics. One intervention involved placing large-framed posters about the orthopaedic clinic waiting areas on which were written, "We helped write the book," and included pictures of various orthopaedic textbooks of which attending surgeons and/or residents had contributed to as authors. The other intervention provided patients with surgeon "face sheets" upon arrival to their clinic appointments. These sheets included a picture of their attending surgeon, contact information for the surgeon's nurse care coordinator, and a brief biographical sketch of the surgeon's training, clinical interests and expertise, and other information at each surgeon's discretion. FINDINGS: Among APLSS survey results for the orthopaedic surgery clinic including all surgeons, significant increases were observed between baseline data and 3-month data for Top 1 and Top 2 responses to the questions, "How satisfied do you feel about your visit?" and "Did your surgeon listen to you carefully about your concerns and questions?" (p = 0.003 and p = 0.004, respectively). IMPACT: The implementation of a multimedia campaign resulted in significant improvements among indices of orthopaedic patient satisfaction. We believe this model could be used at other military or nonmilitary treatment facilities as a means to engender patients' familiarity with their surgeon and prompt an appreciation for his/her expertise and enhance overall patient perceptions of department-wide health care quality.