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A 21-year-old otherwise healthy male sustained a nondisplaced, intertrochanteric fracture of the left femur after being "rear-ended" by a motor vehicle while riding his bicycle. His fracture was managed with protected weight-bearing and progressive mobilization. No traction was utilized. The patient had an excellent clinical outcome at two-year follow-up, reporting modified Harris Hip Score 85, Hip Outcome Score-Activities of Daily Living 88, Hip Outcome Score-Sport Specific 89, and International Hip Outcome Tool-33 of 77., Conclusion: Nonsurgical treatment, consisting of restricted weight-bearing, for non-displaced intertrochanteric femur fracture in young, healthy patients can provide a successful result. Level of Evidence: V., (Copyright © The Iowa Orthopaedic Journal 2021.)

Background: The "Gothic Arch" is a radio-graphic finding on AP pelvis x-rays postulated to be predictive of hip osteoarthritis., Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of measurement of the Gothic Arch in patients with no known hip pathology and patients with unilateral developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH)., Patients and Methods: After obtaining IRB approval, nine skeletally mature patients (18 hips) with no known hip pathology were selected to serve as the control group. The AP pelvis x-rays at skeletal maturity of eight patients (16 hips) with unilateral DDH treated with closed reduction and casting comprised the comparison group. A digitizing program was designed to measure the Gothic Arch based on landmarks identified by the user. Two pediatric orthopaedic surgeons and two orthopaedic residents completed the program on two separate occasions. Intra-and interobserver reliability were determined using intraclass cor-relation coefficients (ICC) for continuous variables., Results: Both the unilateral DDH group and the control group demonstrated excellent inter- and intraobserver reliability (ICC >0.70) for base, height, area, and orientation of the Gothic Arch, but poor reliability (ICC <0.40) for medial and lateral sharpness., Conclusion: The Gothic Arch can be reliably measured on AP pelvis x-rays of patients with normal and dysplastic hips., Level of Evidence: III, Diagnostic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Background: Survey studies have concluded that a lack of consensus exists between orthopaedic surgeons on indications for total hip and knee arthroplasty. Geographic variation in the rates of these operations has raised concerns that some surgeons inappropriately indicate healthier patients for surgery than others. The objective of this study was to compare primary hip and knee arthroplasty patients'pre-operative validated outcome scores between four orthopaedic surgeons operating at a single academic institution from 2003 to 2007., Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed using CPT-4 codes to identify patients who underwent primary total hip or knee arthroplasty at our institution between June 2003 and June 2007. Pre-operative SF-36 and WOMAC scores were recorded for each patient Patient demographics including age, gender, body mass index (BMI), number of co-morbidities, life orientation score (a measure of patient optimism), smoking and alcohol use, education level, and occupation were also recorded. Statistical analysis using unbalanced analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Chi-Square test were used to compare data between the surgeons, with statistical significance set at P < 0.05., Results: There was no statistically significant difference in SF-36 or WOMAC stiffness and function scores between the surgeons. There was a small difference in WOMAC pain scores between the surgeons'total knee patients, but not total hip patients. The number of primary hip and total knee replacements performed by each surgeon ranged from 151 to 955, with a total of 1896 primary joint replacements by the four surgeons during the study period., Conclusions: Patients undergoing primary total joint arthroplasty at our institution were equally disabled between four surgeons, despite the surgeons performing variable numbers of the procedures. Further comparative effectiveness research using validated outcome measures is warranted.