Search

Background. Osteoarthritis is a global health problem. Approaches to symptomatic treatment of its consequences in­clude biological methods, including autologous serum. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Orthokine therapy in our experience. Material and methods. Retrospective analysis of 1000 cases. The results were evaluated on a modified McNab scale (A – excellent, B – good, C – fair, D – poor) two and six months after the end of therapy. The effectiveness of the therapy was estimated as the percentage of satisfactory (A or B) or unsatisfactory (C or D) results. Results. Osteoarthritis of the lumbar spine (n = 400) and knee joint (n = 219) was the most common diagnosis. The highest percentage of patients with a grade A or B result after 6 months was seen with therapy of tennis elbow enthesopathy (88.2%), rotator cuff tendinopathy (72.0%), Achilles tendon tendinopathy (75.0%) and in the early stages of osteoarthritis of the knee (75.9%) and small joints of the hand (77.0%). For cervical and lumbar discopathy, treatment efficacy was at 56.0-62.0% regardless of the size of the hernia. Unsatisfactory results (C and D) predominated in the group of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (66.1%), wrist osteoarthritis (66.7%), and especially in late-stage hip osteoarthritis (85.3 %). For the largest groups, the frequency of unsatisfactory results was analyzed for selected age ranges. A significant increase in this parameter in subjects over 75 years of age was only seen in patients with severe knee osteoarthritis. Conclusions. 1. Orthokine therapy is highly effective in cases of tendinopathy, enthesopathy, osteoarthritis of the small joints of the hand and in early stages of knee osteoarthritis. 2. Satisfactory results are achieved in the treatment of cervical and lumbar discopathy, while unsatisfactory results prevail in severe degenerative changes in the knee and hip joints and in spinal canal stenosis.

BACKGROUND Aim of the study was to translate into Polish, adapt culturally and perform pilot testing of Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) and QuickDASH questionnaires. MATERIAL AND METHODS We followed recommendations and performed a double forward-backward translation. An Expert Committee consisting of physicians, a sworn translator, English native speakers, a psychologist and a linguist reviewed and consolidated all the translations. The Committee's decisions aimed to achieve semantic, idiomatic, experiential and conceptual equivalence with the original version. Thirty patients (20 men), medium age 41.1 years (range 13-79), took part in pilot testing. The study population was heterogeneous in terms of side affected, diagnosis and treatment. RESULTS Expert Committee members reached consensus on 65 discrepancies. In pilot testing, patients had no complaints about understanding or difficulty of the adapted version of the questionnaire. Still, there were some items with missing answers (most often - sexual activity; 60%). Understanding of randomly chosen questions and answers was appropriate. Five patients (16.7%) had more than 10 percent of the items left blank. Substantial ceiling and floor effects were identified for one and two items, respectively. CONCLUSIONS 1. The translation and cultural adaptation led to the development of the official Polish versions of the DASH and QuickDASH questionnaires. 2. Although we have provided some evidence of content validity, additional testing for the retention of psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire is recommended.