A 34-year-old healthy long-distance runner sustained a possible stress injury to the talus. This injury progressed into osteonecrosis (ON) or might have presented idiopathically. This patient had a complete normal metabolic workup. Non-surgical management, including resting, activity modification, and bone stimulators, led to resolution. Serial exams and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated gradual resolution of the ON. At two years old, she was pain-free and had returned to running. Talus ON is uncommon and even more so in the absence of metabolic disorders or precipitating trauma. This case presents a debatable stress injury, an overuse injury, or even an idiopathic ON. It healed with non-surgical management. Serial, advanced imaging surveillance was implemented. There is a lack of impactful literature regarding the management of early ON and a paucity of strong recommendations to guide non-surgical treatment options in the early stages. This presentation is quite debatable as to whether there was a stress fracture leading to ON or if it was idiopathic ON. Yet, these entities could easily overlap, and physicians and orthopedists should be aware.

Stress fractures are a common injury that present in athletes because of the high intensity and repetitive nature of many sports. These injuries require a high index of suspicion in the treating clinician to allow for timely management. Though most low-risk fractures heal well with conservative management, high-risk stress fractures as well as any fracture in the elite athlete may warrant surgical intervention as well as an augmented treatment and rehabilitation regimen.

BACKGROUND: Spondylolysis is a defect of the pars interarticularis of vertebrae, most commonly seen at L5 and L4. The etiology of spondylolysis and isthmic spondylolisthesis is generally considered to be a result of repetitive mechanical stress to the weak portion of the vertebrae. A higher incidence of spondylolysis is observed in young athletes. Symptomatic spondylolysis can be successfully treated conservatively, but there is currently a limited consensus on treatment modalities and a lack of large-scale clinical trials.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the optimal treatment algorithm for symptomatic spondylolysis in adolescent athletes and evaluate the functional outcomes of those undergoing the nonoperative treatment.
METHODS: A retrospective review.
METHODS: Two hundred one adolescent patients ranging from age 10 to 19 involved in athletics OUTCOME MEASURES: Injury characteristics (age, mechanism, time), sports played, bone stimulator use, bony healing at 3 months on computed tomography (CT) scans, return to sports, corticosteroid injection use.
METHODS: Two hundred one adolescent athlete patients (62 females and 139 males) diagnosed with spondylolysis between 2007 and 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Diagnosis was based on plain radiography followed by magnetic resonance imaging. All patients were treated conservatively with cessation of sports activity, thoracolumbosacral orthosis, and external bone stimulator for three months after diagnosis. CT scans were obtained for the 3-month follow-up visits to assess bony healing. Subsequently the patients received 6 weeks of rehabilitation focused on core strengthening. Symptomatic patients after the treatment were referred for steroid injections and continued with the rehabilitation protocol.
RESULTS: The most common age of injury was 15 years old, following a strong normal distribution. The most commonly played sport was football, followed by baseball/softball. The primary mechanism of injury was weight training closely followed by a football injury. The first quarter of the calendar year had the highest incidence of injuries with the most injuries occurring in March and the least occurring in December. One hundred fifty-two athletes reported using bone stimulators as prescribed, and these patients showed a significantly higher rate of bony healing on follow-up CT scans than those who did not use bone stimulators. One hundred ninety-seven patients (98%) returned to sports or similar level of activities. Thirty-seven patients (18%) received facet or epidural steroid injections due to continued pain and one patient underwent a surgical procedure. Follow-up CT scans showed 49.8% bony healing.
CONCLUSIONS: Conservative treatment of spondylolysis in adolescent athletes with cessation of sports, thoracolumbosacral orthosis, and bone stimulator followed by rehabilitation was associated with excellent outcomes in terms of return to sports.

The growth of pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy and its progress over the years for use in post-operative bone growth has been revolutionary in its effect on bone tissue proliferation and vascular flow. However, further progress in PEMF therapy has been difficult due to lack of more evidence-based understanding of its mechanism of action. Our objective was to review the current understanding of bone growth physiology, the mechanism of PEMF therapy action along with its application in spinal surgery and associated outcomes. The authors of this review examined multiple controlled, comparative, and cohort studies to compare fusion rates of patients undergoing PEMF stimulation. Examining spinal fusion rates, a rounded comparison of post-fusion outcomes with and without bone stimulator was performed. Results showed that postoperative spinal surgery PEMF stimulation had higher rates of fusion than control groups. Though PEMF therapy was proven more effective, multiple factors contributed to difficulty in patient compliance for use. Extended timeframe of treatment and cost of treatment were the main obstacles to full compliance. This review showed that PEMF therapy presented an increased rate of recovery in patients, supporting the use of these devices as an effective post-surgical aid. Given the recent advances in the development of PEMF devices, affordability and access will be much easier suited to the patient population, allowing for more readily available treatment options.

UNASSIGNED: Adult both bone forearm fractures (BBFF) are common injuries that are typically treated with operative fixation given their instability. Non-displaced fractures can be theoretically treated non-operatively, but there is no literature demonstrating treatment outcomes of such fractures.
UNASSIGNED: We present a case of non-displaced BBFF in a 23-year-old Caucasian male adult who was treated with cast immobilization and concomitant ultrasound stimulator use; this patient went on to have solid fracture healing without complication.
UNASSIGNED: Based on this case, we demonstrate that non-operative management of non-displaced BBFF in adult patients is an option if close follow-up is available. This is significant for the fields of both orthopedic and plastic surgery, as there is little concrete evidence of outcomes of such non-displaced fractures in hand surgery literature.

BACKGROUND: Aseptic non-union is a significant complication in approximately 5% of long-bone fractures. External bone stimulation treatment is often attempted before more invasive surgical interventions. Bone stimulators can have favorable results, but have a limited 1.7cm therapeutic radius. This study evaluated the accuracy by which clinicians locate a fracture on a cadaveric model. This has implications for the clinician\'s ability to accurately counsel patients on daily bone stimulator placement. Additionally, physicians (orthopedic attending surgeons and residents) were compared with pre-clinical (M1 and M2) medical students to evaluate if higher levels of training improved accuracy.
OBJECTIVE: Orthopedic physicians and pre-clinical medical students will localize a radiographic fracture within 1.7cm less than 100% of the time, which represents the ideal consistency for patient care. Furthermore, orthopedic physicians will achieve a higher percentage accuracy than pre-clinical medical students.
METHODS: The sample included 20 orthopedic physicians and 16 pre-clinical medical students. Upper (radius) and lower (tibia) extremity cadaver models were prepared by inducing a single, transverse diaphyseal fracture. Plain reference radiographs of each model were obtained. Participants placed a radiopaque marker onto each model at the perceived fracture location, and radiographs were taken to document placement. Perpendicular marker-to-fracture distance was measured to the nearest mm along each bone\'s long axis using the PACS system.
RESULTS: Placement within the therapeutic radius was achieved by 70-80% of physicians, and 69-75% of medical students. In the remaining participants, improper placement distances were lower among physicians than among medical students (radius: 2.1±0.5 vs. 3.6±0.9cm, p=0.02; tibia: 2.6±0.5 vs 3.5±0.5cm, p=0.89).
CONCLUSIONS: In two cadaveric fracture models, up to 30% of orthopedic surgeons perceived a fracture location to be outside a bone stimulator\'s 1.7cm therapeutic radius. This finding suggests that physicians and their patients may benefit from additional methods for specifying the location of a non-union before commencing daily bone stimulator treatment.
METHODS: Level IV, prospective cohort study-evidence from a well-designed prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Achilles tendinopathy is a degenerative process of the tendon associated with diminished vascularity, microtrauma, and aging. Nonoperative treatments such as activity modification, immobilization, night splints, and physical therapy have good outcomes for the majority of patients. However, there are cohorts of patients that remain symptomatic despite use of all nonoperative measures that eventually require surgical intervention. The present study reports the preliminary short-term clinical outcomes of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) for treatment for Achilles tendinopathy.
METHODS: Fourteen patients with clinically diagnosed Achilles tendinopathy who failed previous nonoperative treatments underwent LIPUS stimulation directly over the area of maximum tendon tenderness for 20 min/d for 8 weeks total. No other treatment modalities were used during the period of LIPUS stimulation. All patients had serial clinical exams and evaluations with an average follow-up of 12 months (range, 6-50 months).
RESULTS: Excellent clinical outcomes with complete resolution of pain and other symptoms were obtained in 7 patients (50%). Two patients (14%) had good outcomes with mild tendon irritation and stiffness not requiring further intervention. Five patients (36%) had minimal benefit with continued pain, swelling, and tenderness over the Achilles and functional deficits. No patients had worsening pain or progression of disability requiring surgery.
CONCLUSIONS: LIPUS is an additional noninvasive treatment modality for chronic Achilles tendinopathy that may potentially help improve clinical symptoms and delay and/or prevent the need for surgical intervention. While LIPUS is easy to use, well-tolerated, and has promising early clinical results, further research is needed to determine the long-term benefits, disadvantages, and cost-effectiveness of this alternative treatment for tendinopathy.
METHODS: Therapeutic, Level IV: Case series.

Electromagnetic fields and their uses in bone healing have been fairly well studied, with most results showing improvement in healing of both bone and cartilage. Most supportive data are found in relation to the spine, femur, and tibia, but there is increasing evidence for its use in the foot and ankle for treatment of nonunions and as an adjunctive device in arthrodeses, particularly in high-risk populations. There are varying data and a significant variety of quality in the current research and publications concerning the use of electrical bone stimulation in the treatment of the foot and ankle. Thus, there is a definite need for further investigation and high-quality study designs to determine the most effective treatment modalities and pathologies best used with bone stimulation. Bone stimulation should be viewed as an adjunctive procedure in which the surgeon optimizes the high-risk patient both medically or surgically whenever possible. But when used appropriately, bone stimulation has the potential to influence outcomes and aid in bone healing when complications arise and in high-risk populations.