Year Book of Rehabilitation 1986
Authors: John G. P. Williams
Journal: British Journal of Sports Medicine (1987)

Year Book of Orthopaedics 1986 is one of a series of year books produced every year.Specialities are increasing rapidly and none more so than orthopaedics.It is therefore, very important to keep up-to-date with the vast amount of literature.The Orthopaedic Year Book is edited by Mark Coventry who is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Mayo Medical School in the USA.Forty-five journals are represented and the best of the articles are divided into twelve specialities.In paediatrics there are two interesting articles on the treatment of congenital pseudoarthrosis of the tibia -one from the University of Singapore using a vascularised fibular graft and one from Adelaide using electrical stimulation.New features on fracture treatment include Zickel nailing for pathological fractures of the femur (University of Alabama) and several articles involving interlocking Kuntschner nails for high or low fractures of the femur.The use of external fixation and CT scanning is also discussed in the treatment of fractures.Cementless joint replacements are of particular interest at the present time and the use of a bipolar prosthesis is discussed in one article on the hip joint.A 35 year follow-up of his arthrodeses was interesting as this is an operation which is not commonly performed nowadays.The articles in the section on the hip joint included re-surfacing of the femoral head with allografts and prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis with Aspirin during total hip replacement.The articles on the knee joint were dominated by reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament.This still is a major part of many American Orthopaedic Surgeons' work and a great problem amongst athletes.It is interesting that only 35% of ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments have a positive pivot shift test at initial examination, whereas 98% have a positive pivot shift under anaesthetic.Good long-term results from patellectomy were reported from Denmark and bilateral one stage arthroplasties were found to be as safe as two separate operations.Chymopapain chemonucleolysis for prolapsed intra-vertebral discs was found to be a successful procedure, but strict guide lines were necessary to enable good results.In the section on the shoulder, it was gratifying to see that the results of non-operative treatment of acromio-clavicular separations were as good, if not better, than operatively treated cases.The repair of rotator cuff lesions was successful for small defects, but large defects did not do well.Non-union of a scaphoid fracture results in inevitable osteoarthritis and the use of silastic silicone and trapezium implants were rather unpredictable.Mallet fingers treated in Sweden did as well non-operatively as if they were operated on.Chronic lateral ligament tears responded well to a modified Evans tenodesis, while in the article on the foot there were several on hallux valgus, again indicating the many types of procedures available for this condition.Chemotherapy for osteosarcoma is still very controversial and it was interesting that there were no papers on massive replacement for bone tumours.In the section on sports injuries -60% of locked knees came to arthrotomy.There were special articles on joggers' fracture of the pars articularis in the lumbar spine and jumpers knee.found the book of excellent value.It is very much a reference book for orthopaedic surgeons and is an excellent way of keeping up with the present literature.No one person can expect to read all forty-five journals, and hence I found interesting articles from journals I would otherwise not have read.It is ideal as a reference orthopaedic book for libraries.