Human biological variation in the skeleton and dentition
Daniel E. Brown in Human Biological Diversity, 2019
To determine the age at death of a skeleton, human biologists rely on usual patterns of growth and development of bone, including degree of ossification of specific bone regions, wear and tear, tooth development patterns, and eventual disappearance of epiphyseal lines on long bones. While humans vary in traits found in all biological systems, much work by human biologists has focused on traits found in the skeleton and dentition. Biological anthropologists usually divide up the study of skeletal features into metrical versus nonmetrical features. Ethical concerns in the study of human biology and its diversity is addressed in detail elsewhere, but there are special ethical concerns in the study of human remains that are appropriate to outline here. Forensic anthropologists and other biologists who work with human remains are confronted with ethical concerns in the study of the remains of people from both recent and ancient times.
Bones, joints, muscles and tendons
Kevin G Burnand, John Black, Steven A Corbett, William EG Thomas in Browse’s Introduction to the Symptoms & Signs of Surgical Disease, 2014
Myositis ossificans is calcification, or ossification, in part of a muscle. It is an uncommon condition that may follow an injury that has caused extensive intramuscular haemorrhage, sometimes associated with a fracture of the adjacent bone. Bone pain and joint pain are often ‘diffuse’ and poorly localized. A ‘greenstick’ fracture is a type of incomplete fracture that is common in childhood, in which the bone buckles like a bent green twig, but the periosteum and bone ends remain in continuity. Tendons can be ruptured by direct violence, especially if they have been weakened by rubbing over a bone, which causes attritional wear. Bone can become infected by organisms that reach it through the bloodstream or directly through a wound. The tumour has a red fleshy appearance and consists of multinucleate giant cells in a background of stromal cells that extend into the surrounding bone.
OPLL
Kelechi Eseonu, Nicolas Beresford-Cleary in Spine Surgery Vivas for the FRCS (Tr & Orth), 2022
Ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) is mostly found in men, the elderly and Far East Asian patients. Non-operative management is reserved for non-symptomatic patients, with OPLL often diagnosed incidentally. Anterior corpectomy with or without OPLL resection is indicated in patients with kyphotic cervical spine. Posterior laminectomy or laminoplasty surgeries occasionally fail to relieve anterior compression of the spinal cord caused by preoperatively existing cervical kyphosis and/or OPLL. Compared with the anterior approach, the posterior approach is less technically demanding and more applicable to multi-segmental lesions, which are often the case in OPLL patients. Several factors have been reported to be associated with good surgical outcomes, including lordotic alignment of the cervical spine, preoperative morbidity less than 1 year, less compression of the spinal cord, OPLL with a diameter of less than 60% of the spinal canal, no history of trauma, lesser age, and less postoperative range of motion of the cervical spine.
How We Do It: Our approach to the ossified cochlea
Published in Cochlear Implants International, 2005
To date, our department has implanted 305 patients. Fourteen (4.5%) have had significant ossification with involvement of basal ± apical regions. Ossification affecting the round window niche or the first few millimetres of the basal coil does not usually present significant difficulties during surgery. The main reasons for notable fibrosis and ossification has been post-meningitic ossification (8), otosclerosis (5) and trauma (1). Of 36 patients whose hearing loss was due to meningitis, limited ossification of the round window/basal coil was found in nine (25%) and none was found in 19 (53%). The other eight with significant ossification were mainly attributable to pneumococcal meningitis
Cochlear ossification in patients with profound hearing loss following bacterial meningitis
Published in Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 2012
Per Caye-Thomasen, Mikkel Seidelin Dam, Silje Haukali Omland, Margit Mantoni
Conclusion: Cochlear ossification following bacterial meningitis is related to causative pathogen, but not age at disease or time point of evaluation. However, progression may occur over time, especially in case of primary signs of ossification. Objective: To investigate the occurrence and degree of cochlear ossification on CT and MRI in patients with bilateral profound hearing loss following bacterial meningitis, in relation to causative pathogen, age at disease, and time point of evaluation. Progression of ossification in cases that underwent more than one scan was evaluated. Methods: In the period 1982–2008, 47 cochlear implantations were performed in 34 consecutive candidates suffering from bilateral profound hearing loss following bacterial meningitis. A retrospective review of patient files and preoperative CT and MR images was performed. Results: Cochlear ossification was observed in 35% of patients and 26% of ears on CT. The corresponding values for MRI were 44 and 30% (difference not significant). Streptococcus pneumoniae infection caused ossification more frequently than Neisseria meningitidis. No difference was found between pediatric and adult cases, and the occurrence of ossification was not related to the time point of evaluation. Signs of progressive ossification were found in cases with two CT scans, especially if ossification was present at the first scan.
Ectopic ossification in hip arthroplasty: A retrospective study of predisposing factors in 637 cases
Published in Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavica, 1993
Ad J G Nollen, Florens Q M P van Douveren
We investigated predisposing factors for the development of heterotopic ossification in a retrospective study of 637 hip arthroplasties, of which 484 were unilateral, 62 bilateral and 29 revision operations. The frequency of heterotopic ossification after a primary hip arthroplasty was 57 percent. In a univariate analysis, men, patients with hypertrophic arthrosis, and cemented arthroplasty were all at risk of developing heterotopic ossification. After a multivariate analysis, the male sex and the cemented arthroplasty remained as significant factors. In bilateral operations, the contralateral side developed heterotopic ossification in 82 percent when the primary hip operation had already caused ossification. There was no increase in ossifications after the contralateral operation. Half of the revision operations had an increase of heterotopic ossification from 1 to 4 Brooker classes.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Bone
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