The purpose of this thesis was to study the outcome of Single Event Multilevel Surgery (SEMLS) on the gait pattern known as crouch gait in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. The term “crouch gait” in the literature has been defined by many authors to mean a flexed knee coupled with many different combinations of posture at the ankle. Consequently it was necessary to provide a robust definition of crouch gait before the outcome study could proceed. Crouch gait was defined in the context of a classification of sagittal gait patterns in spastic diplegia. In the cross-sectional study on the classification of sagittal gait patterns, 187 children with spastic diplegia were categorised according to visual recognition of their gait pattern and sagittal plane kinematic data. Six gait patterns in spastic diplegia were identified, one of which was crouch gait. A pattern of increasing age, severity and biomechanical incompetency in maintaining an extended posture was seen across the gait patterns and crouch gait appeared to be the “end” gait pattern. A longitudinal study documented how the identified gait patterns evolved over time. Thirty-four children were followed for more than one year and the results indicated that the stability of the gait pattern was variable. The reliability of the classification was found to be acceptable. (For complete abstract open document)

Bone drilling is an essential part of many orthopaedic surgical procedures, including those for internal fixation and for attaching prosthetics. Drilling into bone is a fundamental skill that can be both very simple, such as drilling through long bones, or very difficult, such as drilling through the vertebral pedicles where incorrectly drilled holes can result in nerve damage, vascular damage or fractured pedicles. Also large forces experienced during bone drilling may promote crack formation and can result in drill overrun, causing considerable damage to surrounding tissues. Therefore, it is important to understand the effect of bone material quality on the bone drilling forces to select favourable drilling conditions, and improve orthopaedic procedures.

Total hip and knee arthroplasty surgeries form an integral part of orthopaedic practice. With an increase of the primary arthroplasty surgeries performed, comes also an increase in the number of complications. The most common complications of these otherwise very successful procedures is periprosthetic joint infections which are also one of the most difficult to treat. In the first part of the study, we evaluated the primary bacterial resistance of the 14 most commonly used materials in the construction of joint prostheses. More specifically, we concentrated on how their surface treatment resists colonisation by specific bacterial species (Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli). The studied materials included metal alloys that are commonly used in the weight bearing parts of implants - CoCrNo, FeNiCr and Ti6A14V - but also polymeric and ceramic materials used in the bearing materials, represented by ultra-high- molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3). Our aim was to assess the relationship between material surface roughness and the sensitivity to colonisation by specific bacterial strains and to evaluate their affinity to different materials. Previous studies have proven that the roughness of...

Les patients atteints de mono-traumatisme à un membre doivent consulter un médecin de première ligne qui assurera la prise en charge initiale et référera au besoin le patient vers un orthopédiste. L‟objectif principal de cette étude est de décrire ce mécanisme de référence envers un Service d‟orthopédie affilié à un Centre de traumatologie Niveau 1. La collecte de données concernant l‟accès aux soins spécialisés et la qualité des soins primaires a été faite lors de la visite en orthopédie. Nous avons étudié 166 patients consécutifs référés en orthopédie sur une période de 4 mois. Avant leur référence en orthopédie, 23 % des patients ont dû consulter 2 médecins de première ligne ou plus pour leur blessure. Le temps entre la consultation en première ligne et la visite en orthopédie (68 heures) dépasse le temps compris entre le traumatisme et l‟accès au généraliste (21 heures). Parmi les cas jugés urgents, 36 % n‟ont pas été vus dans les temps recommandés. La qualité des soins de première ligne fut sous-optimale chez 49 % des patients concernant l‟analgésie, l‟immobilisation et/ou l‟aide à la marche. Les facteurs associés à une diminution d‟accès en orthopédie et/ou une qualité de soins inférieure sont : tabagisme, jeune âge, habiter loin de l‟hôpital, consulter initialement une clinique privée, avoir une blessure au membre inférieur ou des tissus mous et une faible sévérité de la blessure selon le patient. Ces résultats démontrent qu‟il faut mieux cibler l‟enseignement relié aux mono-traumatismes envers les médecins de première ligne afin d‟améliorer le système de référence. / Patients with isolated traumatic limb injuries usually consult primary care for first line treatment. The primary care physician will often refer the patient to an orthopaedic surgeon when needed. The research objective was to study the referral mechanism to an Orthopaedic Service in a Level 1 Trauma Center for patients with an isolated limb injury. Access to specialized care and quality of primary care are used to describe the referral mechanism. We studied 166 consecutives patients referred to orthopaedic surgery over a 4 months period. Before the orthopaedic visit, 23 % had seen 2 or more doctors for their injury. The time between the first primary care visit and the orthopaedic evaluation was greater (68 hours) then the interval between the injury and the visit with primary care (21 hours). Among the cases that were considered urgent, 36 % had not been seen within the recommended delay. Quality of initial care was judged sub optimal for 49 % of patients in terms of immobilization, analgesia and/or walking aids. Factors associated with decreased access or quality of care are: smoking, younger age, living far from the hospital, consulting first in a private clinic, lower limb or soft tissue injury and a patient‟s low self-perception of severity. These results underline the necessity of targeting primary care education and improving the referral mechanism for patients with isolated limb injuries.

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