Innovations in Orthopedics and Traumatology in China

2841 Editorial According to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the total population of the mainland of China is 1.33 billion in 2010, including 177 million people aged 60 years or older, accounting for 13.25% of the total population, which increased to 15.53% in 2014. With the degree of growing aging population in our country, patients with musculoskeletal diseases increased greatly, which are the most common cause of severe chronic pain and physical disability among older people. Meanwhile, with the fast development of economy and industrialization in China, the number of patients of traffic injury and construction injury increases rapidly. Taken together, the expenses in orthopedics and traumatology will inevitably increase, challenging the existed medical and health system, presenting significant financial and emotional burden on the society. To address this challenge and improve the patient's care, the innovation of advanced concepts, surgical skills, and novel instruments for accurate diagnostic and treatment methods in orthopedics and traumatology has become more and more vital and imperative in our country. In the field of orthopedics and traumatology, innovation requires orthopedic surgeons to break the traditional rules and think out of the box using critical thinking. In our clinical practice, we emphasize discovering the new application of existed treatment methods. The pilot study using proximal fibulectomy to treat patients with medial compartment osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee joint is a good example. The fibula is the long and thin bone in the lower leg, located parallel to the tibia. In a long time, it is only regarded as an ideal bone source to be grafted onto other bones without affecting the bearing capacity of the leg. However, based upon our clinical experience in the past 20 years, a theory of " nonuniform settlement of tibial plateau playing a key role in the development of knee joint OA " was raised creatively. In this theory, fibula is tubular cortical bone with high bone density, when compared with the proximal tibia, which consists most of cancellous bone with a large weight‑bearing area without bony barrier in the medial side. As a result, the rigid fibular support in the lateral side to the osteoporotic proximal tibia could contribute to the non‑uniform settlement of tibial plateau, a shift in the mechanical axis, aggravating weight‑bearing in the medial plateau, and resulting in articular cartilage degeneration and knee varus. According to this theory, a 2 cm …