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The article describes the case of a 12-year-old girl who sustained a closed palmar displaced distal radial fracture. An above-elbow cast was applied for 4 weeks and a closed reduction was done and initial recovery was free of pain. Swelling and pain were felt 12 weeks after the injury, showing the need to closely monitor the reduction of dorsal cortical fragments that may cause tendon abrasion.

As ear-related technologies proliferate, optimizing comfort, retention, and battery life is crucial for enhancing user experience. A thorough understanding of the anatomical interaction between the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and the earcanal during mouth-opening is essential. This study develops a finite element model and an experimental setup to investigate the biomechanical coupling between the TMJ and the earcanal. We analyze reverse-static deformations, focusing on cartilage-bone junction geometry, mandibular condyle location, and concha mobility. The earcanal geometry is assessed across five cross-sections with seven key dimensions measured. The results indicate that the deformations in cantilever-beam-like models closely match the reference geometry in both approaches, particularly in the lateral region. These findings suggest that a dynamic motion model of the earcanal, accurately simulating its behavior, is feasible., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Ear-related technologies are spreading in our daily life and have become essential in several applications. The comfort, retention and battery life of in-ear devices can be substantially improved by considering the dynamic behavior of the earcanal. A better understanding of the earcanal dynamic motion would not only result in the improved fit and performance of earpieces but could also pave the way to harvest energy from these movements to power future ear-related technologies. The contours of the left and right ears of 18 healthy subjects during closed mouth and 4 activities (mouth opening, turning head left, raising eyebrows and smiling) were discretized. Eight parameters were analyzed to investigate the possible relation between each of these face-related activities and the radial and axial deformations of the earcanal. The largest significant deformations in reference to the closed-mouth geometry were observed during mouth-opening and smiling at the earcanal entrance and between the two bends., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

(1) Background: Surgical phases form the basic building blocks for surgical skill assessment, feedback, and teaching. The phase duration itself and its correlation with clinical parameters at diagnosis have not yet been investigated. Novel commercial platforms provide phase indications but have not been assessed for accuracy yet. (2) Methods: We assessed 100 robot-assisted partial nephrectomy videos for phase durations based on previously defined proficiency metrics. We developed an annotation framework and subsequently compared our annotations to an existing commercial solution (Touch Surgery, Medtronic™). We subsequently explored clinical correlations between phase durations and parameters derived from diagnosis and treatment. (3) Results: An objective and uniform phase assessment requires precise definitions derived from an iterative revision process. A comparison to a commercial solution shows large differences in definitions across phases. BMI and the duration of renal tumor identification are positively correlated, as are tumor complexity and both tumor excision and renorrhaphy duration. (4) Conclusions: The surgical phase duration can be correlated with certain clinical outcomes. Further research should investigate whether the retrieved correlations are also clinically meaningful. This requires an increase in dataset sizes and facilitation through intelligent computer vision algorithms. Commercial platforms can facilitate this dataset expansion and help unlock the full potential, provided that the phase annotation details are disclosed.

Pathologies of the respiratory system can by accompanied by alterations of the biomechanical function of the rib cage, as well as of its morphology and movement. The assessment of such pathologies could benefit from rib cage kinematic analysis during breathing, but this analysis is challenging because of the difficulties in observing and quantifying bone movements in vivo. This work explored the feasibility of using biplanar x-rays to study rib cage modifications at different lung volumes and evaluated the potential of the method to characterize rib cage kinematic patterns in patients. Forty-seven asymptomatic adults and eleven obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) patients underwent biplanar x-rays at three lung volumes: normal breathing, maximal and minimal volume. Rib cage and spinopelvic positional parameters were computed from 3D reconstruction of the skeleton. Results showed that inspiration mostly mobilized the ribs and costo-vertebral junction, while expiration was driven by the spine. OSAS patients had a different sagittal profile at rest than asymptomatic subjects, but these differences decreased at maximal and minimal volume. This suggests that patients employed different biomechanical strategies to attain a trunk configuration similar to asymptomatic subjects at minimal and maximal lung volume. This study confirmed that the proposed method could have an impact for the clinical assessment and understanding of pathologies involving breathing function, and which directly affect rib cage morphology., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The prevalence and significance of frailty are seldom studied in hospitalized patients. Aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of frailty and to determine the extent that frailty predicts delirium, falls and mortality in hospitalized older patients., Methods: In a prospective study of 220 older patients, frailty was determined using the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and the Study of Osteoporotic Fracture (SOF) frailty index. Patients were classified as nonfrail, prefrail, and frail, according to the specific criteria. Covariates included clinical and laboratory parameters. Outcome variables included in hospital delirium and falls, and 6-month mortality., Results: The CHS frailty index was available in all 220 patients, of which 1.5% were classified as being nonfrail, 58.5% as prefrail, and 40% as frail. The SOF frailty index was available in 204 patients, of which 16% were classified as being nonfrail, 51.5% as prefrail, and 32.5% as frail. Frailty, as identified by the CHS and SOF indexes, was a significant risk factor for 6-month mortality. However, after adjustment for multiple risk factors, frailty remained a strong independent risk factor only for the model with the CHS index (OR 4.7, 95% CI 1.7-12.8). Frailty (identified by CHS and SOF indexes) was not found to be a risk factor for delirium or falls., Conclusions: Frailty, as measured by the CHS index, is an independent risk factor for 6-month mortality. The CHS and the SOF indexes have limited value as risk assessment tools for specific geriatric syndromes (e.g., falls and delirium) in hospitalized older patients.