Search

Objective: To investigate the opportune time of secondary definitive surgery for patients with multiple injuries from earthquakes based on the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score and the principles of damage control., Methods: Twenty-one patients with critical earthquake injuries were treated with damage control strategies, followed by medical support and surgical intervention to restore their physical potential in the intensive care unit (ICU). Successive APACHE II scoring was adopted to evaluate the patients'physiological status, and then, internal fixation of fractures and other definitive operations were performed., Results: All the patients were effectively treated with few complications, low deformity rate and no death., Conclusions: Appropriate evaluation of patients?physiological potential, right decision on surgical time and proper operative method can reduce the rates of complications, disability and death for patients with critical earthquake injuries.

Objective: To avoid disadvantages of two-stage cancellus bone autograft, we investigated the feasibility of one-stage allograft for reconstructing the bone defect resulting from debridement of chronic osteomyelitis in limbs., Methods: Between Feb. 1999 and Apr. 2004, 35 cases of chronic osteomyelitis (8 cases of nonunion) underwent one-stage allograft after debridement in our hospital., Results: Thirty-five cases were followed up for an average period of 28 months (range, 13 to 55 months), in which 32 cases (91.43%) were found no infection, and 3 cases (8.57%) were confirmed recurrence of infection. Four out of 8 cases of bone nonunion healed in 9.5 months on average (range, 3 to 12 months), and another case also acquired union after redebridement and autograft of ilium due to infection recurrence 35 days after surgery. Renonunion occurred in 3 cases, 2 out of whom healed after secondary operation with autograft. One case of renonunion and 2 cases of infection recurrence refused further treatment., Conclusions: A high rate of infection arrest can be attained when one-stage allograft is used to reconstruct the bone defect of chronic osteomyelitis after debridement in limbs. Therefore, chronic osteomyelitis should not be regarded as a contraindication to one-stage allogeneic bone grafting. Renonuion, however, achieves a relatively high rate, especially in cases of segmental bone defect.