Background. Frailty has emerged as one of the main predictors of worse outcomes after cardiac surgery, but scarce evidence is available about its influence on postoperative quality of life. Whether frail patients may improve their quality of life or not after the surgical procedure is a matter that still remains unclear.Methods. This observational and multicenter cohort study was conducted in 3 university-affiliated hospitals of three different regions of Spain (Madrid, Asturias, and Canary Islands). Patients were categorized into three ordinal levels of frailty (frail, prefrail, robust) using the Fried, FRAIL (fatigue, resistance, ambulation, illnesses, and loss of weight) scale, and Clinical Frailty Scale frailty scales. We analyzed the changes on health-related quality-of-life for each level of frailty using the EuroQoL 5-Dimension 5 Level questionnaire before and 6 months after the operation.Results. The study included 137 patients, and 109 completed the 6-month follow-up.

Peridural fibrosis is one of the more frequent complications of lumbar surgery. Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs inhibit the inflammatory and fibroblastic response. We performed lumbar laminectomies in 24 rabbits, divided into two groups. The experimental group received 5 mg/kg/day of aceclofenac for 7 days and the control group received 1 cm 3 of physiological saline. The samples were stained using immunohistochemical methods. The cellular populations in the inflammatory reaction and the thickness of the fibrous membrane were quantified. The mean of the fibrous area was always less in the rabbits of the experimental group compared to controls (47% less at 2 weeks and 41% less at 4 weeks). We observed an 8% decrease in the number of fibroblasts with antivimentin monoclonal antibodies in the experimental group. In this model, aceclofenac inhibits the presence of inflammatory cells in the fibrous scar in the early stages and reduces the extension of adhesions without adverse reactions.

Background: In recent years, the use of surgically implanted biological aortic valves has been favored over mechanical prosthesis in patients between 50 and 70 years of age. However, outcomes on long-term survival are contradictory. The objective of this study was to determine if patients with mechanical valves have worse long-term survival than patients with biological prostheses.Methods: We systematically searched published studies that: (1) were propensity score-matched or randomized controlled trials; (2) provided survival data with a minimum follow-up of 5 years; and (3) included patients older than 50 and younger than 70 years of age. Review articles, case reports, and editorials were excluded. We conducted a meta-analysis on the basis of 2 types of analysis. A reconstruction of the database of each study to simulate a patient-level meta-analysis was performed. Log rank test of Kaplan-Meier curves was recalculated. Hazard ratio (HR) was calculated using a univariate Cox regression. In addition, we calculated a pooled HR using the fixed-effect inverse variance method.Results: Four propensity score-matched studies and 1 randomized controlled trial met the inclusion criteria. Data of 4686 patients were analyzed. Survival rates for mechanical versus biological valves at 10 and 15 years of follow-up were: 76.78% (95% confidence interval [CI], 74.72%-78.69%) versus 74.09% (95% CI, 71.96%-76.08%), and 61.58% (95% CI, 58.29%-64.69%) versus 58.04% (95% CI, 54.57%-61.35%). Log rank test was statistically significant (P ¼ .012) and the pooled HR was 0.86 (95% CI, 0.76-0.97; P ¼ .01).Conclusions: Compared with biological aortic valves, mechanical valves are associated with a long-term survival benefit for patients between 50 and 70 years.

BackgroundMinimal invasion surgery (MIS) is a recent technique recommended for Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) but demands an effort of the surgeons and the learning curve may be long.MethodsTwenty six MIS-TKA were matched to 36 standard TKA with respect to age, sex, body mass index or preoperative score. All patients suffered from knee osteoarthritis, which had not improved with medical treatment and which presented a less than 10° deformity in the coronal and sagittal radiographic projections. At six months after the surgery a specific questionnaire was completed as well as the KSS (Knee Society rating scale), the generic short-form health questionnaire (SF-12) and a visual analogue scale (VAS).ResultsThe MIS technique required more time of surgery (p < 0.001), hospital stay was noticeably shorter (p < 0.05) and drainage volume collected after surgery was significantly higher in the standard technique. We observe a higher frequency in small sizes implants for MIS surgery but no statistically significant differences were found between both groups regarding the radiological alignment of the implant. At six months no differences were found between the groups in range of motion, KSS scores, the physical or mental subscale SF-12, patient's pain perception, satisfaction or subjective improvement.ConclusionsMinimal invasion surgery in total knee arthroplasty showed no improvement over a standard approach.