The AO North America held this year’s Symposium on Surgical Preservation of the Hip in Jackson Hole, WY. Many of the world’s thought leaders on the topic made the journey to the Rocky Mountain ski destination to share their knowledge about modern management of impingement, dysplasia and other complex hip disorders. While the curriculum of the course was comprehensive, ranging from anatomy to femoral head reduction osteotomy, presentations and group discussions revealed several common themes, which revolved around the contemporary understanding of hip pathology and the rapid expansion the hip preservation field.

Donald Hohman, MD, gives an update on what took place at ORS 2013 annual meeting in San Antonio. With his colleagues, he had the opportunity to present research on the clinical presentation and outcome of hemolytic and non–hemolytic strains of Propionibacterium acnes in shoulder surgery, and also presented research on the angular relationship of femoral mechanical axis and epicondylar axis in knees with varus deformity.  

Jörg Ruhe, MD MPH

Dr. Ruhe is Editorial Board member of the journal; Division of Infectious Diseases Beth Israel Medical Center, and Assistant Professor of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

There has been a recent outbreak of fungal meningitis in the United States related to injections of contaminated steroid solutions, used for the treatment of peripheral joint and back pain. The first patient was reported to the Tennessee Department of Health on September 18, 2012 with a diagnosis of culture-confirmed Aspergillus fumigatus meningitis 46 days after an epidural steroid injection in a Tennessee ambulatory surgical center.

Denis Nam, MD

Dr. Nam is Resident Advisory Board Member of The American Journal of Orthopedics; and Fellow, Adult Reconstruction and Joint Replacement, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY.

With the growing obesity epidemic in the United States, the effect of body mass index (BMI) on perioperative outcomes in total knee and hip arthroplasty continues to be an area of interest. One area of focus has been the effect of BMI on blood loss, with several studies reporting mixed results. A study recently published in The American Journal of Orthopedics by Hrnack and colleagues, reported that increased obesity did not correlate with increased intraoperative blood loss in either primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA).

Paul G. Peters, MD

Dr. Peters is Resident Advisory Board Member of The American Journal of Orthopedics; and Associate Faculty, Wright State University School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio.

There may be another good alternative for the treatment of nonunions and delayed unions other than surgery. A study just published in The American Journal of Orthopedics by Vulpiani and colleagues, reported that extracorporal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is safe and effective for the treatment of fracture nonunions.