Early Practice Patterns of Hand Surgeons: An American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Database Study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the variety of cases that are performed by newly graduated fellowship-trained orthopedic hand surgeons. METHODS: All cases submitted by board-eligible orthopedic surgeons taking part II of their board examination between 2004 and 2013 were obtained from the database of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS). Each case was then categorized based on the fellowship training of the treating surgeon and whether it was a hand surgery case. Each hand surgery case was then further categorized into 1 of the 8 surgical categories used by the ABOS to determine eligibility for the Subspecialty Certificate in Orthopaedic Surgery of the Hand (SCOSH). RESULTS: During our study period, 6,854 orthopedic surgeons submitted 858,146 cases to the ABOS. Fellowship-trained hand surgeons made up 13% of all surgeons, and 24% of all submitted cases were hand surgery cases. Based on the cases submitted, 44% of hand surgeons were not on track to become eligible for the SCOSH. The most common reason for not reaching eligibility was failure to meet the minimum requirements in 1 of either the congenital, the skin and wound problems, the contracture and joint stiffness, the microvascular, or the tumor categories. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of fellowship-trained orthopedic hand surgeons are not on track to meet the minimum eligibility requirements for the ABOS SCOSH during their part II case collections. Their case profile is not sufficiently diverse to be considered an active hand surgery practice for the purpose of SCOSH eligibility. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study highlights 1 possible reason why over one-third of young hand surgeons do not obtain their subspecialty certification.

Intra-articular hip injections for lateral hip pain.

Occult intra-articular hip pathology is commonly found in patients with greater trochanteric pain syndrome, and may be a possible pain generator in patients with recalcitrant lateral hip pain. We investigated the effect of intra-articular hip injections in patients with recalcitrant lateral hip pain. Between September 2012 and May 2013, patients over the age of 18 with a history lateral hip pain who had received prior treatment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy and peritrochanteric corticostroid injections were enrolled. Treatment consisted of an ultrasound guided intra-articular corticosteroid injection followed by a course of directed physical therapy and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication. Patients performed GaitRite analysis at baseline and 12 weeks following the injection. In addition, the Modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), Non-Arthritic Hip Score (NAHS), Hip Outcome Scores (HOS), Short Form 36 (SF-36) and a visual analogue pain score (VAS) were collected at baseline, 1, 6 and 12 weeks.A total of 16 patients were studied. Patients experienced significant improvements from their baseline mHHS at 1 and 12 weeks (P = 0.03, P = 0.04). The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was exceeded at multiple timepoints on various clinical outcome surveys. Velocity and stride length were not significantly improved at 12 weeks. Intra-articular hip injections may decrease pain and improve function in patients with recalcitrant lateral hip pain, and occult intra-articular hip pathology should be considered in the etiology of lateral hip pain. Though low enrollment numbers left this study underpowered, MCID comparisons demonstrated potential benefit from this treatment.