SEARCH KNOWLEDGE BASE: 10.000 Q&A

General Information Archives | Orthoped

Nutrition and Joint Care

Nutrition

    • Glucosamine and Chondroitin
      Although the book title is a bit of a misnomer, The Arthritis Cure details the importance of glucosamine and chondroitin to the health of cartilage. Glucosamine can be purchased over-the-counter at health food stores, pharmacies, and discount stores as glucosamine sulfate or glucosamine HCl, often in combination with chondroitin sulfate. The labelling often recommends an initial dose of 1500 mg of glucosamine sulfate and 1200 mg of chondroitin sulfate for 60 days, then a maintenance dose of 500 mg of each daily following that.Some have argued that chondrotin is a very large molecule and may be difficult to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Because glocusamine is a sugar, some have suggested large doses may increase your risk of developing diabetes. Also, if your cartilage is severly damaged, added nutrients may be akin to throwing fertilizer on the sidewalk and expecting grass to grow.

(more…)

Read More

Joint, Tendon & Nerve Protection Suggestions

 

General Suggestions for Protecting Joints & Tendons from Overuse

Whether you have arthritic joint changes or hand and arm pain from repetitive strain injury, the following general suggestions can be helpful in relieving joint stressors and reducing pain during activity. (more…)

Read More

Exercise (mini rest-breaks)

To maximize the potential for prevention and recovery, it is important to make a commitment to daily stretching and cardiovascular exercise and to perform strengthening exercises 3-4 times per week depending upon your schedule and your symptoms.

Begin with postural and core strengthening, especially If you are painful or if the injury is acute. Progress into strengthening for the hand, wrist and elbow as symptoms and pain tolerance allows.

Exercise sessions do not need to be long. Taking 2-3 minutes for stretching every hour while working will improve your comfort. Studies show that these mini rest-breaks actually increase your productivity by the end of the day! (more…)

Read More

Osteotomy for Hip Dysplasia

Hip Dysplasia

Hip dysplasia is a condition where the hip socket is not deep enough to allow proper function of the hip joint. It is sometimes referred to as developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) or congenital dysplasia of the hip (CDH). Often it appears bilaterally. In the worst cases the hip may be dislocated from the socket. Dysplasia is often diagnosed when a child has difficulty walking or is very slow to begin walking. In less severe forms the condition can go undiagnosed until adulthood, when the patient begins to have pain and show signs of early osteoarthritis due to the poor mechanics of the joint. (more…)

Read More

Post Surgical Care

Home Preparation Items

Check with your doctor and hospital about what you will need. Generally you will be provided with the following equipment or need to obtain them from a home health equipment store. In most cases these devices will be needed for the first six weeks to help avoid the risk of dislocation before the hip capsule heals. Some of these devices may be helpful before surgery to make life less painful. I bought a reacher about a year before surgery and it helped a lot. (more…)

Read More

Surgical Issues

Choosing a Doctor

The best indicators of success of a surgeon is the number of surgeries performed per year, experience with the tools and device, and the number of hip replacement surgeries per year for the hospital. If a doctor is doing 50 hip replacements or resurfacings per year, he or she is doing at least one per week and is more likely to have experience with a wide variety of patients and surgical challenges and is more likely to be on top of the latest techniques and hardware than a surgeon doing fewer. (more…)

Read More

Identification of bacteria

How do the bacteriologists decide which bacteria is causing the postoperative wound infection?

In about 130 years the bacteriologists used the relatively simple method to smear the pus or the swabs from the wound on to special substrate. The substrate is either fast, gelatin-like substance agar mixed with blood; or liquid, a kind of nutritious soup in a bottle.

Pus containing Staphylococcus aureus bacteria was smeared on the surface of the blood-agar plate. The blood-agar plate is within a glass dish and is covered by another dish to prevent downfall of other bacteria from the air. The whole culture is grown for at least 2 days in a constant temperature (32-37 degrees Celsius). (more…)

Read More

Antibiotic Treatment

The choice of antibiotic
The selection of the antibiotic for the treatment of the infection around the total joint depends on the sensitivity of the bacterial strain that caused the infection.
Unfortunately, often there is more than one bacterial strain found in the infected joint.
Moreover, in about 10 -20 per cent of all total joint infections, no bacteria grow in the sample taken from the infected joint, although there are other obvious signs of infection present. (more…)

Read More

What is a total knee prosthesis

Contents:

classification of total knee prostheses

unicompartmetal total knee

tricompartmental total knee

posterior stabilized total knee

cemented / cementless total knee

mobile and fixed bearing

materials for total knee / incongruent joint surfaces


There is no such total knee joint prosthesis that can mimic the complicated forms of surfaces of the knee joint and the “fuzzy biomechanics” of a healthy knee joint. Every total knee joint prosthesis is thus a compromise, that mimic only certain characteristics of the natural knee joint. The classification of total knee prostheses is equally “fuzzy”. (more…)

Read More

Bradycardia in Orthopedics

Bradycardia or a slow heart rate, is an uncommon but grave complication in the field of orthopedics. A sudden attack of bradycardia is life-threatening, and has to be managed intensively, with the help of a physician or an anesthetist. The blurring of clinical signs of bradycardia is generally due to more importance given to orthopedic injuries or a surgery which a person has undergone.

(more…)

Read More