Address for further communications: Dr. A. Chechick, Dept. of Orthopaedic Surgery A, Chaim Sheba Medical Centre, Tel Hashomer, Israel game, spontaneous rupture of the Achilles tendon occurred. The patient was operated upon the same day. An irregular tear of the Achilles tendon was found five centimetres proximal to its insertion. It was repaired by end to end suture with gastrocnemius fascia ro...

BACKGROUND Of all distal radius fractures, 25 % are complete articular fractures (AO/OTA type C fractures). Two thirds of those fractures are displaced and require reduction. According to several International Guidelines, adequately reduced intra-articular distal radius fractures are best treated non-operatively with plaster immobilisation, while surgical fixation is suggested only when the art...

BACKGROUND About 2,000 patients annually incur a fractured scaphoid in Norway. Assessment and diagnosis can be difficult, and fractures are overlooked. Scaphoid fractures have traditionally been cast-immobilised, but for the last decade screw fixing has been used increasingly, and offers hope of a higher healing frequency and improved function. Some scaphoid fractures are not diagnosed in the a...

The use of suxamethonium (succinylcholine) for rapid-sequence intubation may be limited by hyperkalaemia. Modest pre-induction hyperkalaemia is usually disregarded. We present a patient who underwent emergency surgery for a perforated peptic ulcer after being bedbound for 26 days because of a head injury. Serum potassium level was 4.0 mmol/L. The patient was intubated after injection of sedativ...

We report the case of a middle-aged man where a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) was delayed due to initial underestimation of risk and over-reliance on D-dimer testing. The patient presented with pleuritic chest pain after a 5 h domestic flight. The treating clinicians presumed that this duration of immobilisation was insufficient to cause a PE, D-dimer was not measured and the patient was...

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction is a severe and life-threatening complication after an operation. The mobilisation of the patient is difficult and, therefore, the stay of the patient in the hospital is extended and the resulting immobilisation is associated with further complications (e.g. decubitus, pneumonia, or thrombosis). The genesis of the postoperative cognitive dysfunction has diffe...

Hydroxynitrile lyases are a versatile group of enzymes that are applied both in the laboratory and on an industrial scale. What makes them particularly interesting is that to date five structurally unrelated categories of hydroxynitrile lyases have been discovered. Given their great importance they have often been immobilised utilising many different methodologies. Therefore the hydroxynitrile ...