The purpose of this brief report was to identify the differences in blood investigations between total hip and knee replacement. We evaluated 80 consecutive patients who underwent hip (40) or knee (40) replacement, by examining pre-and postoperative blood samples. Preoperative blood tests were performed within 30 days prior to surgery, while postoperative blood tests were performed within 24 hours after surgery. We did not find any statistically significant difference between pre-and postoperative hematologic variables between groups (P > .05). Total hip and knee replacement impact patients in early postoperative in a similar way from a systemic point of view.

Background: Although many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in improving speech recovery in post-stroke aphasia, as far as we know patients affected by thalamic aphasia have never been investigated. Patient and method: A 65-year-old man with severe non-fluent aphasia due to a left thalamic haemorrhagic stroke underwent intensive daily speech therapy combined with tDCS.  Results: The patient showed progressive improvement with almost complete recovery of his speech disorder, behavioural disinhibition and apathy.  Conclusions: Our findings suggest that tDCS with concurrent speech therapy can be useful in patients with subcortical stroke lesions.