Weight Loss Surgery May Cut Knee Osteoarthritis Pain

Losing weight can help reduce the amount of pain experienced by obese people with knee osteoarthritis, researchers say. The new study included 24 obese adults, aged 30 to 67, with knee osteoarthritis who underwent weight loss surgery. The patients' knees were assessed before surgery and at six and 12 months after surgery. Patients who lost an average of 57 pounds within six months of having bariatric surgery showed significant improvements in knee pain, stiffness and physical function, the investigators found.

These patients also experienced improvements in quality of life, the ability to perform day-to-day tasks and sports activity. None of the patients received other treatments for their knee osteoarthritis. The findings were scheduled to be presented Saturday at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day program. "Each individual had some kind of improvement in their pain from losing weight, some more than others," lead researcher Christopher Edwards, of the Penn State College of Medicine, said in a society news release.

"There are few studies that have investigated the role of isolated weight loss in the absence of additional arthritis treatment on those individuals with radiographically confirmed osteoarthritis," he added. "Further research still needs to be performed to investigate whether knee arthritis symptom improvement continues over time and applicable to those individuals who are simply overweight, but our research suggests a strong possibility of improvement."

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More Kids Who Play Basketball Suffering Head Injuries

Children's basketball may be getting rougher or the kids may be bigger, but either way the number of head injuries is soaring, researchers report. "Although the total number of injuries decreased during the study period, the number of traumatic brain injuries increased by 70 percent," said study author Lara McKenzie, of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "These injuries are exceedingly high in this popular sport," she added. "This is cause for alarm." McKenzie thinks the increased size of players is one factor in the increase in concussions. Another is that the game has become more competitive, she said. Why total injuries have gone down by 20 percent over the 11 years covered by the study is not clear, McKenzie added.

"We don't want to discourage kids from physical activity. We don't want to discourage kids from playing basketball, either," she said. "But we need to recognize that there are some inherent risks in any activity." McKenzie added that the problem of traumatic brain injury needs to be addressed. "Maybe we need to do more education of coaches, athletes and parents to recognize the signs of concussion and help to prevent them," she said. The findings are published in the Sept. 13 online edition of the journal Pediatrics. For the study, McKenzie's team used data from 1997 to 2007 from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to estimate the number of children injured while playing basketball.

Over the study period, the researchers found an estimated 4,128,852 children were treated in emergency rooms for injuries sustained while playing the sport. That's 375,350 every year. While the total number of injuries went down over the study period, traumatic brain injuries increased 70 percent, the researchers found. The most common other injuries were sprains in the legs 30.3 percent, particularly of the ankle. Boys were more likely to suffer cuts, fractures and dislocations, while girls were more likely to suffer concussions and knee injuries. Children 15 to 19 years of age were three times more likely to injure their knees and ankles, while younger children, aged 5 to 10, were more likely to suffer concussions, fractures and dislocations, the study found.

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Unvaccinated Teen's Life Forever Changed

Carl Buher came home from the football game feeling rotten. A strong, healthy, 14-year-old high school freshman, Carl had attended a day's worth of school and then played in the game, but it felt as if he were coming down with the flu. That made sense: A lot of his teammates had recently had the flu, and he figured they'd just passed it on to him. So he came home, ate, did his homework and went to bed, recalled Carl's mother, Lori Buher of La Conner, Wash. When she woke him up in the morning, Carl told her he'd been up all night vomiting. "We figured he had the flu, so he stayed home from school," Buher said. The first sign that Carl might be sicker than they thought came in the form of purple bruises that began to form, first on his face and then down his arms and legs. By 2 p.m., Buher took her son to the doctor, concerned for his health.

The doctor diagnosed Carl quickly and, as it turned out, accurately: The teen had contracted meningococcal meningitis. The diagnosis took Buher by surprise. "He had none of the symptoms you hear about," she said. "No stiff neck. No terrible headache. No high fever." The family physician sent Carl to the local hospital's emergency room. Within hours he was being airlifted to Seattle Children's Hospital. "His heart stopped twice on the helicopter," Buher said. "They had to revive him." This was in 2003, and Buher knew about meningitis and knew that a vaccine was available to prevent it. But at the time, the vaccine Menomune wasn't recommended for kids Carl's age. Teens headed for college were supposed to get the vaccine, but even that was a shaky proposition.

Buher's two college-age kids were on a waiting list for Menomune vaccination but hadn't received it yet because supplies were short. Now her son Carl was incredibly sick with the disease. She and her husband hurriedly made the hour's drive to Seattle. "When we got there, they had a social worker waiting to help us prepare for his death," she remembers. "It was so overwhelming." Doctors put Carl in a drug-induced coma, in which he lingered for five weeks. His mother recalls that he was given more than 25 different medications to keep his body functioning. Nonetheless, meningitis ravaged Carl's body. He had to have both legs amputated below the knee, and he also lost three fingers. The purple bruising turned out to be his skin dying, which led to gangrene. Carl endured skin grafts all over his body, 13 in all, and still bears the scars. His weight fell from 185 to 119 pounds.

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Students Warned to Beware of 'Laptop-itis'

The very design of laptop computers encourages bad posture among college students and other heavy users, which can lead to headaches, muscle strain and debilitating neck, shoulder and hand injuries, researchers caution.The issue stems from the unified body construction that defines laptops, researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, explained in a university news release. With an inseparable keyboard and monitor, users are not free to configure their equipment in a way that minimizes risk. "When you use a laptop, you have to make some sort of sacrifice," Dr. Kevin Carneiro, a physician in the UNC School of Medicine's department of physical medicine and rehabilitation, stated in the news release.

Such a sacrifice to convenience comes at a price, Carneiro noted. Awkward positioning of the fingers and body can cause nerve injury to the wrist and prompt the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome, while poor neck position and shoulder posture can cause muscle strain and soreness in those areas. Signs of trouble typically come in the form of headaches, wrist pain, tingling in the fingers or thumb, and neck and shoulder pain, he added. Concern about such laptop health issues is driven by their rising popularity, as worldwide sales now exceed those of standard desktop computers. Students are particularly vulnerable, since laptops are a common feature of campus life. That said, Carneiro and his colleagues point out that laptop users can take specific steps to minimize their risk.

* If you are working at a computer, your body should form 90-degree angles at the elbows, knees and hips.

* Use a docking station and cables to hook up to an external monitor and/or separate keyboard that are      moveable to encourage better posture.

* With the help of a docking station, position the computer so you can read the screen without bending your neck.

* Pay attention to the chair you sit in look for one that is adjustable and comes with back support.

* Tilt the screen so you don't need to bend your neck, and place the mouse so that your wrists are in a neutral position .

* Take frequent short breaks every 20 minutes or so this can help rest muscles and encourage position shifting. Do some shoulder shrugs, gentle forward head rolls, and shoulder scrunches to stretch your muscles.

* Stay hydrated drinking plenty of water can help keep discs in your back lubricated.

In addition, watch out for warning signs, including pain and tingling. Carneiro said these may mean you need to use better posture, take more breaks, or see a doctor.

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