Tibialis Anterior Muscle: Pedicled Bone Graft for Defect of the Tibia.

Purpose: To report the result of the bone graft retrograde pedicled with the tibialis anterior muscle belly for the treatment of bone defect of tibia. Methods: Between 2017 and 2020, the bone graft pedicled with the tibialis anterior muscle was applied for the treatment of 11 patients with a cortical defect and nonunion of the tibia due to trauma and one patient with segmental bone defect caused by tramatic osteomyelitis. The tibialis anterior has the largest muscle belly, but has not been commonly used due to functional disability following use as transposition muscle flap. New anatomic and clinical data confirm that the distal half of this group of muscles can be transposed with the tendon left intact with no noticeable loss of muscle function. Based on the vascular nutrition of this muscle, we performed a retrograde pedicled bone graft using the muscle belly, thus preserving the function of this muscle. Result: The operation was relatively simple and early bone unions have been achieved without any complications. Conclusion: The bone graft pedicled with the tibialis anterior muscle is useful for the treatment of bone defect of the tibia.

Study on ethanol electro-oxidation over a carbon-supported Pt-Cu alloy catalyst by pinhole on-line electrochemical mass spectrometry.

A carbon supported Pt-Cu electrocatalyst was synthesized by the microwave-polyol method following acid-treatment and physically characterized by different techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Both potentiodynamic and potentiostatic measurements with pinhole on-line electrochemical mass spectrometry were carried out to study the electrocatalytic activity and reaction intermediates of Pt/C and Pt-Cu/C electrocatalysts during the ethanol oxidation reaction. The results of potentiodynamic and potentiostatic measurements showed that the Pt-Cu/C electrocatalyst has higher ethanol oxidation efficiency and incomplete ethanol oxidation to acetaldehyde and acetic acid prevails under the given conditions. After calibration of the m/z = 44 mass signal, the CO2 current efficiencies on Pt/C and PtCu-3/C were ∼7% and ∼12%, respectively, which reveal that the presence of copper enhances the complete ethanol oxidation to CO2.

Endoscopic observation finding in the core decompression procedure of osteonecrosis of femoral head and effect of additional treatments.

PURPOSE: To observe necrotic findings of the femoral head through the endoscopic examination when performing the decompression procedure widely used in the treatment of osteonecrosis of femoral head. To assess the efficacy of injection of bone marrow aspirated from the iliac crest and new vascularized bone graft into the core of femoral head based on the endoscopic findings. METHODS: The first stage of osteonecrosis of femoral head based on ARCO classification includes 23, second stage 36, and third stage eight femoral heads. Bone marrow transplantations have been performed in 49 hip joints and new vascularized bone grafts in 18 hip joints. RESULTS: The endoscopic findings of osteonecrosis of femoral heads are varied, and they can be divided into five categories. The average time in core decompression and bone marrow injection was 15 minutes, and the average time of new pedicled bone grafts was 65 minutes (45-90 minutes). The efficacy of bone marrow injection was 93.88%, and the efficacy of vascularized bone graft was 94.44% when performed based on the endoscopic findings. CONCLUSION: It is possible to increase the treatment efficacy of the osteonecrosis of the femoral head when appropriate additional treatments are applied based on endoscopic findings in the decompression procedures of pre-collapse osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

Building operational readiness for responding to emergencies in the WHO South-East Asia Region.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has an essential role to play in supporting Member States to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies with public health consequences. Operational readiness for known and unknown hazards and emergencies requires a risk-informed and structured approach to building capacities within organizations such as WHO offices and national ministries of health. Under the flagship priority programme on emergency risk management of the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, a readiness training programme consisting of four modules was implemented during 2017-2018, involving staff from WHO country offices as well as from the regional office. The experience of and lessons learnt from designing, developing and delivering this phased training programme have fed into improvements in the curriculum and training methodology. The training programme has also facilitated the development of business continuity plans and contingency plans in some of the 11 Member States of the region and has increased the readiness of WHO staff for swift deployment in recent emergencies. It is recommended that the strengthening of operational readiness for responding to emergencies in the region be sustained and accelerated through the development of a regional training consortium that can scale the training programme up at national level, taking into account country contexts, national health systems and the needs of populations. The resilience of the populations and health systems in the region will be increased if disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness and response activities are supported by operational readiness.