Tehran University Medical Journal

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The appropriate time for performing transfers in radial nerve palsy is somewhat a controversial matter. Brown suggested that it would be advisable to proceed early with the full component of tandon transfers when there is a questionable or poor prognosis for the nerve repair. For example, when there is a nerve gap of greater than 4 cm or when there is a large wound or extensive scarring or skin loss over the nerve. He recommended ignoring the nerve and proceeding directly to tandon transfer

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This deformity is often reffered to as thumbclutched hand, but a better term is the congenital clasped thumb. The congenital clasped thumb is associated with several well-de-fined syndromes, although it may also present as an isolated abnormality. Weckesser, Reac, and Heiple called it a syndrome and divided the syndrome in to four groups. In group I, the thumb is deficient in extention only. In group II, flexion contractur combine with deficient extention. In group III, the thumb is hypoplastic, and tendons and muscles are deficient. Group IV consists of the few remaining cases that so not fit into the first three groups. Group I cases are found three times as frequently as group II cases, while group III and IV cases are five times less frequet than group II cases. The congenital clasped thumb is twice as common in males as in females and is nearly always bilateral. During the early weeks of life, an infant frequently clutches the thumb and releases it intermittently for spontaneous motion. However, by the third or fourth month of life, the normal child ceases to clasp his thumb under his fingers. If the clasping persists and normal independent action of the thumb dose not develop, the syndrome of congenital clasped thumb is present

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The primary carcinoma may secondarily invade bone tissue through direct extensions, blood circulation or lymphatic transportation particulary when it is arising from breast, prostate, kidney, thyroid and lung. Metastatics tumors of bone are more common than primary tumor of bone. The most common tumor, which metastasizes into bone, is the breast adenocarcinoma. Some metastatic tumors of bone including the breast cancer, may appear only as a destructive lesion, while prostatic carcinoma is osteoblastoma. The metastasis is mostly appeared in skull, vertebrae, pelvic, femur and humerus bones. The first metastatic syndrome is usually the affected bone pain and pathologic fractures are commonly caused by osteometastasis

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Cysts in bone are seen occasionally at or near its end and are filled with mucoid, glaird fluid. Typically, they have a thick fibrous wall similar to that of a "ganglion" of tendon sheath, are associated with no significant degenerative changes in the nearly near by joint, and seem appropriately considered to be collections in synovial spaces in unusual locations. Although they are rare and usually an incidental radiographic finding, intraosseous ganglions are being increasingly recognized as a source of wrist pain. Surgical treatment is best delayed, however, until all other possible etiologic factors for the patient's discomfort have been excluded. When indicated, curettage and bone grafting will adequately treat the condition. A careful exploration of the joint at the time of surgery helps rule out other undiagnosed causes for the patient's symptoms. Communications between the joint cavity and the intraosseous cyst are inconsistently demonstrated. The histologic features of intraosseous ganglions are identical to their soft tissue counterparts

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Osteoid osteoma is a unique benign primary bone tumor that may present in the metaphyseal diaphyseal areas of the short tubular bones and has also been reported in the carpal bones. It occurs in the first two decades of life. The classic history is bone pain, often relieved by aspirin. The clinical appearance is local swelling and tenderness. The typical radiographic appearance is very characteristic: an eccentric area of cortical sclerosis, frequently with a radiolucent nidus. The lesion does not exceed 1 cm in diameter. The use of a bone scan may be helpful diagnostically, as are the CAT scan and tomography. Doyle et al described seven cases of osteoid osteoma with a prolonged delay in diagnosis, but reported an excellent cure rate following excision. The carpus is not unusual as a site for this tumor, especially the scaphoid. Treatment is windowing with curettage of the tumor nidus. The use of a dental drill to window the phalanx and expose the nidus is very helpful. Removal of the entire nidus is permanently curative, but if a portion of the tumor is missed, prompt recurrence of the symptoms is the rule.

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Variation of recurred branch of median nerve in relation to the median and flexor retinaculum are significant for both hand surgeons and specialists always. In this study, 64 cadaver hands (32 men) have been dissected. The median nerve was identified at the proximal edge of the flexor retinaculum, and in order to expose carpal tunnel the ligament was divided, and the above subjects were studied. The results are: 1) The relation of recurrent nerve to the flexor retinaculum was classified into 4 types: A) In (53.1%) of subjects, this branch arises from the median after the flexor retinaculum. B) In (31.3%) of subjects, it arises from the median in the carpal tunnel and the moves around the lower edge of flexor retinaculum and enters the thenar region. C) In (14.1%) of subjects, it arises from the median in the carpal tunnel and pierces the flexor retinaculum. D) In (1.56%) of subjects it arises, in the carpal tunnel and it divides into two subbranches here. One follows pattern A and the other pattern C. 2) In this step, the relation of the recurrent branch to the median nerve was studied. The results show that inspite of this image even though most often the recurrent branch arises from the lateral side of median, in (68.75%) of subjects it arises from it's anterior surface. The MC Nemar test reveals that there is no relation between manifestation of mentioned patterns with right or left hands.

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Breast cancer is a major cause of mortality in women due to malignant diseases and is the most prevalent type of cancer in western countries. According to investigations which has been done in Iran so far, the prevalence of disease in our country is also very high, therefore complete attention to clinical and pathological findings of this disease would be extremely essential. In this study, the direct relationship between axillary lymph node involvement and the aggressiveness of invasive ductal carcinoma has been brought into consideration. This study is a case series of 90 patients which all of them have had radical mastectomy because of breast cancer and all their samples has been referred to the center of pathology of Imam hospital. Based on modified Bloom-Richardson grading, all the samples have been graded. The study of all lymph node samples related to above cases has also been conducted along with the main study. The most frequent ages of disease was 31 to 40 and left breast had most involvement. From all cases, 12.2% were in grade I with 27.2% lymph node involvement, 66.7% grade II with 73.4% lymph node involvement and 21.1% in grade III with 100% lymph node involvement (P=0.00008). Based on statistical analysis we concluded that the axillary lymph node involvement in breast cancer is strongly associated with the aggressiveness of invasive ductal carcinoma. This important point should not be neglected in planning for treatment of this kind of disease.

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Between 1371 to 1379, of 10 patients with radial tunnel syndrome, 9 patients were treated by decompression of the posterior interosseous nerve. 8 patients were followed up more than 10 months. One patient improved without surgery. Half of the patients suffered from pain and all of them had variable degrees of paralysis in muscles innervated by deep branch of the radial nerve. The syndrome was diagnosed after an average of 26 months after onset of symptoms. 3 patients had associated endocrine disease and 2 patients suffered from another accompanied compression neuropathy. 8 patients performed strenuous, repetitive upper extremity tasks. EMG confirmed the diagnosis in all patients. The source of nerve entrapment was identified as the arcade of Frohse in 4 patients. Malignant soft tissue tumor was responsible for nerve compression in one patient. More than one pathologic site was responsible for nerve entrapment in another 4 patients. Of 8 patients with enough follow-up after operation, pain was improved in all, but paralysis was improved in only half of them. According to ritts criteria, results were good in 50% of patients and in 50% of patients results were bad. All bad results were due to persistence of paralysis in affected muscles. One of four patients who had no improvement in paralysis, was satisfied with surgical result because tendon transfer was performed at the time of nerve decompression. It is recommended that all possible sites of nerve compression in the radial tunnel be explored and released.

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Cleft hand deformity is a rare congenital anomaly of the hand with an incidence rate about 1/90,000. It has two clinical types Typical and Atypical. In this paper we are representing ten cases of this anomaly admitted during seven years from 1992 in Emam Khomeini Hospital. Some of the patients especially those with typical cleft hand deformity achieved good functional results after surgical correction of the deformity. In the younger age group we observed better functional results.

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Background: Osteoid osteoma is a well-known benign tumor of bone. It occurs in children and young adults and is rarely seen above the age of 40. It is uncommon in hand and wrist. If it occurs in hand and wrist, its diagnosis is difficult because of its unusual presentations both clinically and radiologically.

Materials and Methods: We encountered ten patients with osteoid osteoma of hand during the last ten years in orthopedic department of Emam university hospital from 1970 to 1979.

Results: The average age of ten patients with osteoid osteoma of the hand and wrist that were treated in Imam hospital from 1369 to 1378, was 22.9 years (range, 14 to 33 years). Five lesions were in proximal phalanx, one in middle phalanx, and one in distal phalanx. In the wrist, one lesion was in the capitate, one in the lunate, and one in the hamate. The average time from onset of symptoms to successful treatment was 20 months (range, 4 months to 60 months). Three of ten patients had had treatment elsewhere, all of them had had unsuccessful operative procedures related to incorrect diagnosis. All patients had a minimum follow-up of 6 months (range, 6 months to 9 years, mean: 4.6 years). The operative treatment were successful in all ten patients without any signs or symptoms of recurrence. Only limitation of proximal interphalangeal joint range of motion was remained in one patient due to 60 months delay in diagnosis and treatment.

Conclusion: High index of suspicion is necessary for diagnosis of osteoid osteoma of hand because of unusual presentation of it. The most important factors for successful treatment of osteoid osteoma of hand are accurate diagnosis and exact preoperative planning.

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Conclusion: Despite the long history of surgical treatment in syndactyly repair, this reconstructive operation has still special complexities.

Materials and Methods: In order to evaluation of results of our surgical reconstructions, we studied 77 patients (40 boys and 37 girls) with hand syndactyly (mean age at operation: 5.8±4.3 years) in Imam Khomeini Hospital from 1994 to 2003. All of these patients had been operated by standard surgical methods. Post-operative complications and functional, sensational, and cosmetic results have been assessed by patient records and physical examination after an average follow-up of 4.6±2.1 years.

Results: Syndactylies were simple in 71 patients (92.2%), complex in 2 (2.6%), and mixed in 4 (5.2%). In 45 patients (58.4%), surgical repair had been performed without graft. The overall results of operations were good in 81.8%, moderate in 13%, and poor in 5.2%. The most common complications were: web migration in 9.1%, scar contracture in 7.8%, infection in 5.2%, necrosis in 3.9%, and angular deformity in 2.6%.

Conclusion: In this study we shown that the standard methods in our center for correction of syndactyly, at least in recent 10 years, have been efficient and with good results.

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Background: In this study we evaluated the treatment of giant cell tumor (GCT) of long bones using cryosurgery combined with curettage and polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) cementing.
Material and methods: From January 1999 to December 2004, twenty patients (mean age at the time of surgery 29.2 years) 13 females and 7 males were included in the study. Cortical disruption were presented in 7 patients 4 with soft tissue extension, but none of them had intra-articular extension of tumor, 3 patients presented with pathologic fracture of distal femoral lesions. These tumors were located in distal femur in 6 patients, proximal tibia in 7, distal radius in 3, proximal femur in 2, and each of proximal humerus and distal ulna in one patient. In each case diagnostic biopsy was done and surgical procedure performed including curettage, power burr of the wall, cryosurgery with liquid nitrogen and finally filling the space with PMMA cementing. The mean follow-up was 34 months (7 to 61 ).
Results: During follow-up, we observed one recurrence of GCT of proximal tibia. Secondary Aneurysmal bone cyst was reported at the site of one primary distal femoral lesion, without any finding in favor of a recurrence. Neurapraxia of the proneal nerve was occurred in one patient with proximal tibia tumor improved after 8 months.
Conclusion: Cryosurgery combined with power burr and PMMA cementing in the treatment of GCT could be an effective approach in tumor eradication. This method obviates the need for extensive resections and reconstructive procedure.

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Background and Aim: Osteoblastoma is one of the rarest primary bone tumors. Although, small bones of the hands and feet are the third most common location for this tumor, the hand involvement is very rare and few case observations were published in the English-language literature.                     

Materials and Methods: In this study, we report five cases of benign osteoblastoma of the hand, 3 in metacarpals and two in phalanxes. The clinical feature is not specific. The severe nocturnal, salicylate-responsive pain is not present in patients with osteoblastoma. The pain is dull, persistent and less localized. The clinical course is usually long and there is often symptoms for months before medical attention are sought. Swelling is a more persistent finding in osteoblastoma of the hand that we found in all of our patients. The radiologic findings are indistinctive, so preoperative diagnosis based on X-ray appearance is difficult. In all of our 5 cases, we fail to consider osteoblastoma as primary diagnosis. Pathologically, osteoblastoma consisting of a well-vascularized connective tissue stroma in which there is active production of osteoid and primitive woven bone. Treatment depends on the stage and localization of the tumor. Curettage and bone grafting is sufficient in stage 1 or stage 2, but in stage 3 wide resection is necessary for prevention of recurrence. Osteosarcoma is the most important differential diagnosis that may lead to inappropriate operation.

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Background: Rotator cuff tendon tear injury is one of the most frequently seen orthopaedic conditions, and surgical repair of rotator cuff tears is a common procedure. The purpose of the present study was to determine the results of full-thickness rotator cuff repair and to look for predictors of outcomes.

Methods: we studied 27 patients (17 men and 10 women with a mean age of 57.7 years) who underwent open rotator cuff repair surgery for full-thickness tear between 2001 and 2005 at the Imam Khomeini Hospital and were subsequently followed-up for 6 and 12 months after surgery. The shoulder function was assessed by Constant classification and factors potentially associated with outcomes were

Results: The mean of preoperative Constant score (CS) was 45.8 ± 14.1 after 12 months, 6 patients (22.2%) had good results and 21 patients (77.8%) had excellent result according to CS. Pain relief was generally satisfactory. Using multiple regression analysis, treatment was significantly correlated preoperative CS and acromio-humeral interval (AHI) however, no correlation was found between the result of the treatment and pretreatment atrophy, tear size, acromial morphology, preoperative symptom duration and age.

Conclusion: In this study, a standard rotator cuff repair technique reduced pain severity and was associated with good results, however larger studies are necessary to define the long-term outcome of this procedure.

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Background: Pigmented villonodular synovitis is a tumor that arises from the synovial membrane of the joint or tendon sheaths. Two main forms include a diffuse form that involves the whole synovial lining of a joint, bursa, or tendon sheath, and a less common localized form. The diffuse form typically involves the large joints, while the localized one typically occurs around the small joints of the hands and feet. Usually involving the knee joint, the occurrence of pigmented villonodular synovitis in the foot, especially in the metatarsophalangeal joint of the great toe, is very rare, and is therefore often mistaken for other foot pathologies. Although it seems histopathologically benign, it has a known tendency to recur after surgery.
Case report: Here, we report a 42 year old woman who had experienced pain in the right great toe for 1.5 years. She was treated conservatively with shoe modification and NonSteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, and two injections of Corticosteroid.
Results: The failure of long-term conservative therapy and the bony erosion revealed in her radiograph led us to surgically excise the lesion of the first metatarsophalangeal joint. Histopathological examination revealed the diagnosis of pigmented villonodular synovitis. For the 18 months following surgery, she had no complaint except minimal pain in her toe after activity. No sign of recurrence was observed either clinically or radiologically.
Conclusion: We conclude that pigmented villonodular synovitis should be noted in the differential diagnosis of chronic monoarticular synovitis in order to provide an earlier diagnosis and more effective treatment.

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Background: Ulnar club hand (ulnar deficiency) is a rare congenital disorder of the upper extremity. In the Flatt series among 2758 congenital disorders of upper extremity only 28 cases of ulnar deficiency were reported. Due to its rarity and variations in presentation current data in the management of the deformity is very limited. Here we present our experience and results in comparing management of ulnar deficiency.

Methods: We include all of the ulnar club hand patients (five boys and one girl with seven involved extremities) from 1993 to 2006. After recognizing the type of deformity the classic management approach was performed that was splinting in corrective position until six months of age and then anlage resection. Syndactyly release was done in appropriate age according to involved rays, other operations for restoration of apposition was done after 18 months of age. Two of our patients were neglected, the first one was a 12 years old boy without any ulnar deviation but with syndactyly of the remaining rays and the other was a 32 years old male with severe ulnar deviation and partial syndactyly who is a skillful worker. We determined the effect of anlage resection on ulnar deviation of the wrist and restoration of opposition and syndactyly release on function of the limb.

Results: In short term follow up, anlage resection was effective in prevention and correction of ulnar deviation, however the deformity was partially recurred later. Surprisingly, the function of the limb was not significantly affected with the extent of the deformity. On the other hand, the operations used for opposition of the thumb like first metacarpal rotational osteotomies and tendon transfers for powerful opposition, were more effective in the hand and also limb function compared with anlage resection alone. 

Conclusions: Due to our observation of the neglected cases, the most important factor in the function of the hand is the function of the thumb, thus we believe that restoration of opposition and syndactyly release may be more effective than anlage resection on limb function in Ulnar Club Hand patients

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background: Nerve entrapment neuropathies are relatively frequent in the upper limb. Significant costs related to resultant disability and treatment, and also simultaneous occurrence of some of these syndromes can result in alteration in the treatment approach. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of these syndromes, the rate of concurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome as the most prevalent syndrome with others, related risk factors, and accordance of clinical and electrophysiological findings.
Methods: In a retrospective study, data of the 170 affected patients to these syndromes operated during a period of 10 years in a referral center were searched using recorded documents. Information about patient's gender, age, occupation and associated co-morbidities, clinical and surgical findings and their accordance to the EMG-NCV findings, and also concurrence of these syndromes were assessed.
Results: Patients' range of age was 10-91 year (mean: 48.09 year) and 74.5% of them were female. In this study carpal tunnel and cubital tunnel syndrome were the most frequent (81.7% and 15.8% respectively). In 23.5% of patients with carpal tunnel syndrome, electrophysiological findings were negative but there was no false positive result. Concurrent carpal tunnel syndrome with other syndromes were found in three cases of cubital tunnel syndrome, two cases of thoracic outlet syndrome and one case of Guyon's canal syndrome.
Conclusion: Constellation of symptoms, physical examination and electrophysiologic-al findings altogether should be considered for correct diagnosis of nerve entrapment syndromes in the upper extremity. Simultaneous entrapment in the other regions of the same nerve or other nerves in the same extremity is a probable condition

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background: Salmonellosis is a bacterial gasteroenteritis caused by different serovars of Salmonella. In the recent years, Salmonella enterica subspecies. Enterica serovar enteritidis is a major cause of gastroenteritis and food poisoning in the worldwide.  Different genus of salmonella is increasingly being resistant to common antibiotics. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and the antibiotic resistance patterns of Salmonella enterica isolated from medical health centers in Tehran.

Methods: In this descriptive cross- sectional study from April to December 2008, 1950 fecal specimens from children with diarrhea were cultivated to identify Salmonella enteritidis. We used Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) protocol to determine resistance patern of the isolates to 16 different antibiotics.

Results: In this study, out of 26 isolates 14(54%) were S. enteritidis, 2(8%) S. para B, 6(23%) S. para C, 3(11%) S. arizonea and 1(4%) S. para A. all of them were sensitive to ceftazidime, cephalexin, cefotaxime, ceftiraxone, ciprofloxacin, imipenem, meropenem, gentamicin and colistin sulfate. All of the isolates were resistant to nitrofurantoin whereas 71.4% of them were resistant to nalidixic acid.

Conclusions: The most prevalent isolated salmonella was S.enteritidis. According to high sensivity of these isolates to cephalosporin and flourqouinolon family, they can used as infective treatment for salmonellosis infections.

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Background: Intravaginal misoprostol has been shown to be an effective agent forcervical ripening and induction of labor. The aim of present study was to assess the effects of adding hyoscine to vaginal misoprostol on its success rate. Methods: In a clinical trial, 74 women who were referred to undergo legal induction of labor during first pregnancy trimester in Arash Hospital, in Tehran, Iran, between March 2006 and March 2007 were enrolled, and were randomly divided in to two groups of misoprostol (400 μg/4h, vaginal) (n=37) or misoprostol (400 μg/4h, vaginal) plus hyoscine (20 mg IV) (n=37). Their complications including nausea, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, need for analgesics, diarrhea, vaginal bleeding, decline in hemoglobin more than 3 g/dl, need for blood transfusion and failure of treatment according to the failure of induction of labor or cervical opening in 24 hours after starting treatment and the total duration of hospitalization were compared between groups. Results: There were no significant differences between groups regarding the rate of side effects like nausea, abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. In misoprostol plus hyoscine group, the success rate in abortion was significantly higher (40.5% vs. 18.9%, p=0.04) and total duration of hospitalization were significantly lower (1.16±0.41 vs. 1.42±0.45 days, p=0.01). There was no case of fever, need for blood transfusion or significant vaginal bleeding in both groups. Conclusions: Adding 20 mg hyoscine via IV rout to vaginal misoprostol will raise the success rate in induction of abortion, and decreases the total duration of hospitalization without adding adverse effects.

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800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background: Cancer of uterine cervix is the second cause of death in women in the world and the most common cause in developing countries. Because the majority of women with invasive cervical cancer of the uterine have not previously undergone screening, many clinicians assume that Pap smear has a high degree of accuracy but problems such as false positive and false negative interpretations, as well as interobserver variability have questioned its validity.
Methods : We retrieved 162 positive cervical smears that had been originally interpreted as ASC-US, ASC-H, LSIL, HSIL, SCC, AGC and adenocarcinoma from the cytology archives of Women's Hospital in Tehran, Iran. The slides were rescreened by an experienced pathologist and reclassified in the mentioned categories. All the 162 slides were reviewed by three more pathologists in a blind study using interpretative criteria utilized in their daily routine to evaluate interobserver reproducibility. To increase the level of interobserver agreement, the diagnostic categories were reduced to squamous Vs. glandular abnormalities and invasive (SCC and adenocarcinoma) Vs. non-invasive abnormalities.
Results : The results obtained in this study indicated slight interobserver agreement (k=0.26). The most reproducible category was the invasive category (SCC in addition to adenocarcinoma) and the least agreement was seen for HSIL (k=0.19).
Conclusion: This study showed that reproducibility of cytological interpretation of conventional Pap smears varies among interpretive categories and the overall interobserver agreement is slight. Since convening on the reduction of interobserver discrepancy in Pap smear interpretations necessitates more reliable information of interpretative variability, larger studies need to be undertaken.