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Abstract Background The effectiveness of arthroscopic treatment for osteoarthritic knee is a controversy. This study presents the technique of a novel concept of arthroscopic procedure and investigates its clinical outcome. Method An arthroscopic procedure targeted on elimination of focal abrasion phenomenon and regaining soft tissue balance around patello-femoral joint was applied to treat osteoarthritis knees. Five hundred and seventy-one knees of 367 patients with osteoarthritis received this procedure. There were 70 (19%) male and 297 (81%) female and the mean age was 60 years (SD 10). The Knee Society score (KSS) and the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS) were used for subjective outcome study. The roentgenographic changes of femoral-tibial angle and joint space width were evaluated for objective outcomes. The mean follow-up period was 38 months (SD 3). Results There were 505 knees in 326 patients available with more than 3 years follow-up and the mean follow-up period was 38 months (SD 3). The subjective satisfactory rate for the whole series was 85.5%. For 134 knees with comprehensive follow-up evaluation, the KSS and all subscales of the KOOS improved statistically. The femoral-tibial angle improved from 1.57 degrees (SD 3.92) to 1.93 degrees (SD 4.12) (mean difference: 0.35, SD 0.17). The joint space width increased from 2.02 millimeters (SD 1.24) to 2.17 millimeters (SD 1.17) (mean difference: 0.13, SD 0.05). The degeneration process of the medial compartment was found being reversed in 82.1% of these knees by radiographic evaluation. Conclusions Based on these observations arthroscopic cartilage regeneration facilitating procedure is an effective treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee joint and can be expected to satisfy the majority of patients and reverse the degenerative process of their knees.

"Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy versus Sham Surgery for a Degenerative Meniscal Tear" published in the New England Journal of Medicine on December 26, 2013 draws the conclusion that arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy provides no significant benefit over sham surgery in patients with a degenerative meniscal tear and no knee osteoarthritis. This result argues against the current practice of performing arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) in patients with a degenerative meniscal tear. Since the number of APM performed has been increasing, the information provided by this study should lead to a change in clinical care of patients with a degenerative meniscus tear.

Vascular events are one of the major causes of death in case of Cushing's syndrome (CS). However, due to the relative low frequency of CS, it is hard to perform a risk assessment for these events. As represented congestive heart failure (C), hypertension (H), age (A), diabetes (D), and stroke (S), the CHADS2 score is now accepted to classify the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with atrial fibrillation. In this study, participants were enrolled from the National Health Research Institute Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan, and we reviewed 551 patients with their sequential clinically diagnosed CS data between 2002 and 2009 in relation to MACEs risk using CHADS2 score. Good correlation could be identified between the CS and CHADS2 score (AUC = 0.795). Our results show that patients with CS show significantly higher risk of vascular events and the CHADS2 score could be applied for MACEs evaluation. Adequate lifestyle modifications and aggressive cardiovascular risks treatment are suggested for CS patients with higher CHADS2 score.