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A 42-year-old man with colonic Crohn's disease presented to the orthopaedic department with septic arthritis of the knee with frank intra-articular pus, which persisted despite repeated joint washouts. This coincided with a symptomatic flare of his colonic Crohns. Imaging revealed a fistulous connection from the proximal sigmoid colon into the pelvis, a psoas abscess, myositis of the musculature around the left pelvic girdle and left thigh and two focal collections almost surrounding the distal femur. The knee symptoms only settled after laparotomy and resection of the diseased sigmoid colon and fistula. This case report demonstrates an unusual presentation of fistulating Crohns disease as septic arthritis.

This study assessed factors responsible for exclusion of patients from bone donation at primary hip arthroplasty in order to improve bone banking. Fifty-five patients underwent screening in preoperative clinics assessing their suitability for femoral head donation. Records at the bone bank were then reviewed post operatively to check whether bone had been harvested from these individuals during surgery. Overall, 95% of the patients screened did not proceed to bone banking. After the initial screening stage 60% of patients were excluded. The majority of exclusions (70%) were unacceptable as donors because of their potential risk of transmission of disease to recipients. Although 40% were consented for donation, femoral heads from only 5% were harvested and sent for storage in the bone bank during hip arthroplasty. Orthopaedic surgeons must take an active part in bone banking and alternative sources of bone grafts require exploration in the future to meet the increasing demand.

We reviewed the initial post-operative radiographs of the Trident acetabulum and identified a problem with seating of the metal-backed ceramic liner. We identified 117 hips in 113 patients who had undergone primary total hip replacement using the Trident shell with a metal-backed alumina liner. Of these, 19 (16.4%) were noted to have incomplete seating of the liner, as judged by plain anteroposterior and lateral radiographs. One case of complete liner dissociation necessitating early revision was not included in the prevalence figures. One mis-seated liner was revised in the early post-operative period and two that were initially incompletely seated were found on follow-up radiographs to have become correctly seated. There may be technical issues with regard to the implanting of this prosthesis of which surgeons should be aware. However, there is the distinct possibility that the Trident shell deforms upon implantation, thereby preventing complete seating of the liner.

We present a radiographic follow-up of an uncemented, nonmodular, pure titanium-backed acetabular component at 6 to 12 years postimplantation. Between 1990 and 1992, 130 primary total hip arthroplasties were carried out by 1 surgeon using this implant, in association with both cemented and uncemented femoral components. There were 19 deaths, 5 revisions, and 19 hips lost to follow-up, leaving 87 hips available for review at a mean of 9.6 years. Two revisions were for infection, whereas 3 well-fixed cups were changed at the time of revision of a loose femoral component to allow downsizing to a 28-mm head. No cup has been revised for aseptic loosening. There was no radiographic evidence of periacetabular osteolysis or loosening of any of the cups, even in a subgroup of 31 patients who were 60 years or younger at the time of implantation.

Fifty patients were randomly recruited to receive either femoral nerve block (0.375% Bupivacaine) or an intraarticular local anaesthetic injection for pain control for arthroscopically-assisted ACL reconstruction. Both groups were evenly matched for age ( t-test p >0.05). Tourniquet time did not differ significantly between the groups ( t-test p=0.24). The VAS pain levels were not significantly different at 4 h and the first morning postoperatively in both groups. Femoral block (Median VAS: 20 & 18.5) did not confer a significant advantage (Mann Whitney U test p =0.36, 0.67) over intraarticular injection of bupivacaine (Median VAS: 18 & 20). There was no correlation between tourniquet time and postoperative pain ( r=0.19, 0.08). All patients but one were discharged home on the first postoperative morning. Our study demonstrates that pain levels can be sufficiently controlled by intraarticular infiltration of bupivacaine coupled with oral analgesia. The level of pain relief achieved could allow this procedure to be performed in a day surgery setting.