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Purpose: To investigate the clinical effectiveness of a pneumatic compression device (PCD) combined with low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) for the prevention and treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in trauma patients.Materials and Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed 286 patients with mild craniocerebral injury and clavicular fractures admitted to our department from January 2016 to February 2020. Patients treated with only LMWH were used as the control group, and patients treated with a PCD combined with LMWH were used as the observation group. The incidence of DVT, the postoperative change in the visual analog scale (VAS) score and coagulation function were observed and compared between the two groups. Excluding the influence of other single factors, binary logistic regression analysis can indicate whether the use of a PCD effectively improves the patient's postoperative coagulation function.Result: The incidence of DVT in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (7.1% vs. 16.7%, respectively, χ2=4.605, P0.05). According to binary logistic regression analysis, the postoperative risk of DVT in patients with LMWH alone was 1.764 times that with the combination of LMWH+PCD (P Conclusion: Compared with LMWH alone, PCD combined with LMWH can improve blood rheology and coagulation function in patients with traumatic brain injury and clavicular fracture, significantly reduce the incidence of DVT, shorten the hospital stay and improve the clinical effectiveness of treatment.

Background A tourniquet is commonly used in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). However, the effectiveness and safety of tourniquets are debated. We performed this study to investigate whether patients benefit from the use of tourniquets in TKA. Methods The literature search was conducted using Pub-Med, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Embase, and other medical databases. After a literature search, 26 randomized controlled trials involving 1,450 knees were analyzed. Results Tourniquet use significantly decreased intraoperative blood loss, transfusion rate, and operation time but not postoperative blood loss, measurable total blood loss, calculated total blood loss, transfusion volume, incidence of pulmonary embolism, or duration of hospital stay. It also slowed down joint functional recovery in the short term and increased the incidence of deep vein thrombosis and other minor wound complications. Conclusions Data from this meta-analysis indicate that patients may benefit from the use of a tourniquet in TKA; however, it use is accompanied by disadvantages and complications. Because of the very low-evidence quality and lower grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation recommendation strength, no guidelines can be developed based on current evidence.

Osteonecrosis or avascular osteonecrosis (AVN) of the femoral head is a devastating multifactorial disease that affects 20 000 persons each year in the United States. The purpose of this systematic review was to determine the efficacy and safety of alendronate for adult AVN during short- and long-term follow-up. Electronic databases were searched for randomized or nonrandomized clinical trials, cohort, case-control studies, and series of cases in which alendronate was used for treatment of adult AVN of the femoral head. Relevant articles with adequate data on reduction of pain, improvement of articular function, slowing of bone collapse progression, or need for total hip arthroplasty (THA) were included after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Eight articles involving 788 hips with evidence level 1b to 3b were included in this systematic review. Most studies suggested a positive short-term efficacy of alendronate treatment in reducing pain, improving articular function, slowing of bone collapse progression, and delaying the need for THA for adult AVN patients. The favorable long-term results were also presented in those treated patients after 10-year follow-up. In addition, there were no severe adverse effects associated with alendronate treatment observed during short- and long-term follow-up, and most of the included studies suggested use of alendronate in early AVN with small necrotic lesion to achieve better outcomes. The findings support consideration of alendronate use for adult AVN, particularly with early stage and small necrotic size. The lack of large-scale, randomized, and double-blind studies justifies new studies to demonstrate the detailed indication and the optimized strategy of alendronate treatment. Level of evidence: Level 3a.

Interleukin-1β-mediated production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) plays a pivotal role in the process of osteoarthritis. Crocin, a pharmacologically active component of Crocus sativus L. (saffron), has been used in Chinese traditional medicine. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of crocin on MMP-1, MMP-3 and MMP-13 expression in rabbit chondrocytes induced by interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and in an experimental rabbit model induced by anterior cruciate ligament transection.Chondrocytes isolated from the articular cartilage of 4-week-old rabbits were cultured and passaged. Confluent chondrocytes were treated with various concentrations of crocin in the presence or absence of IL-1β (10 ng/ml) for 24 h. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and Western blotting were used to investigate the expression of inducible MMP-1, MMP-3 and MMP-13. In addition, the in-vivo effects of crocin were assessed by morphological and histological analysis.IL-1β markedly upregulated the expression of MMP-1, -3 and -13 in chondrocytes, and this activation was inhibited by co-incubation with crocin in a dose-dependent manner, in contrast with the control group. Moreover, crocin inhibited IL-1β-induced activation of the nuclear factor kappa B pathway through suppressing degradation of inhibitory-kappa-B-α. In-vivo investigations showed that crocin ameliorated cartilage degeneration and that expression of the MMP-1, -3 and -13 genes in cartilage was significantly inhibited by crocin.Taken together, our findings suggest that the anti-inflammatory activity of crocin may be of potential value in the prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis.

The purpose of the current review was to determine the efficacy of alendronate for preventing collapse of femoral head in adult patients with nontraumatic avascular osteonecrosis of femoral head (ANFH). Five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 305 hips were included in this review, of which 3 studies investigated alendronate versus control/placebo and the other 2 studies compared the combination of alendronate and extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) with ESWT alone. Our results suggested that even the patients with extensive necrosis encountered much less collapse in the alendronate group than control group. In these RCTs, their data also indicated a positive short- and middle-term efficacy of alendronate treatment in joint function improvement and hip pain diminishment. With the presence of the outlier study, only insignificant overall efficacy of alendronate could be observed with substantial heterogeneities. In addition, we did not find any additive benefits of alendronate in combination with ESWT for preventing collapse compared to ESWT alone. In conclusion, there is still lack of strong evidence for supporting application of alendronate in adult patients with nontraumatic ANFH, which justified that large scale, randomized, and double-blind studies should be developed to demonstrate the confirmed efficacies, detailed indication, and optimized strategy of alendronate treatment.

Background Increased production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is closely related to the progression of osteoarthritis (OA). The present study was performed to investigate the potential value of biochanin A in inhibition of MMP expression in both rabbit chondrocytes and an animal model of OA. Methods MTT assay was performed to assess chondrocyte survival in monolayers. The mRNA and protein expression of MMPs (including MMP-1, MMP-3, and MMP-13) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) in interleukin-1 (IL-1β)-induced rabbit chondrocytes were determined by quantitative real-time PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. The involvement of the NF-kappaB (NF-κB) pathway activated by IL-1β was determined by western blotting. The in vivo effects of biochanin A were evaluated by intra-articular injection in an experimental OA rabbit model induced by anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT). Results Biochanin A downregulated the expression of MMPs and upregulated TIMP-1 at both the mRNA and protein levels in IL-1β-induced chondrocytes in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, IL-1β-induced activation of NF-κB was attenuated by biochanin A, as determined by western blotting. Moreover, biochanin A decreased cartilage degradation as determined by both morphological and histological analyses in vivo. Conclusions Taken together, these findings suggest that biochanin A may be a useful agent in the treatment and prevention of OA.