Tibial fractures following participation in recreational football: Incidence and outcome

Background

Football is responsible for 3.5%-10% of all injuries treated in hospital, but this may reflect the popularity of the sport rather than its dangers. Young people are particularly at risk of sports injury because of high levels of exposure at a time of major physiological change. Soccer players are susceptible to a variety of injuries due to contact, aggressive tackle, and high-speed collisions.

Aims

The aim of this study was to determine the pattern of presentation, treatment, and outcome of tibial fractures following participation in recreational football activity; with the hope that knowledge gained from this study will help in preventing or reducing its occurrence.

Patients and Methods

This is a retrospective study of all cases of tibial fractures following participation in recreational football presenting to the Orthopedic Unit of Federal Medical Center and Surgery Department of Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital all in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, north western Nigeria; from January 2012 to December 2017. Data were extracted from the accident and emergency register, operation register, and patients' case folders on biodata, diagnosis, mechanism of injury, associated injuries, type of surgical procedure, site of surgery, date of surgery, and postoperative complications. Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows version 22. Results were presented with descriptive statistics.

Results

In total, 37 patients were included in the study. All of them were males. The age range is from 14 to 33 years with mean age of 23.6. 17 (45.9%) of the patients are in the 21- to 30-year age group. The right tibia was affected in 34 (91.9%) patients. None of the patients used shin guard. The mechanism of injury in all the cases was direct contact. About 31 (83.8%) of the fractures were closed. Seven (18.9%) of these patients were discharged against medical advice. Nineteen (51.3%) patients were managed nonoperatively with plaster of Paris casts. Ten (27.1%) of these patients had internal fixation with locked intramedullary nail.

Conclusion

Tibial fractures following football occur mostly in males especially adolescents and youths. The right tibia was commonly affected and most of the injuries are closed. The most common mechanism of injury was direct contact.

Sexual communication intervention for African American mothers & daughters

BACKGROUND

African American girls ages 13-19 comprised nearly 3 out of 4 new cases of HIV in 2009. The goal of this study was to deliver a theoretically-driven intervention to test the feasibility for recruitment and retention of mother-daughter dyads.

METHODS

Twenty mother-daughter dyads were recruited from a community health center between February-April 2014. Comparisons were made between pre- and post-intervention scores using percent change.

RESULTS

Twelve dyads (60%) completed the intervention. There were no demographic differences between completers and noncompleters. Notable post-intervention percent increases in scores were observed in the domains: Sexual knowledge (15%), confidence to talk (23.2%); and openness of sexual communication (26.4%).

CONCLUSION

Our small-sized study showed promise in the intervention. Increasing sexual communication between African American mothers and daughters is likely to be sustainable over time and across relationships, and thus have a greater impact on HIV-prevention behaviors later in life.

Compliance with the peri-conceptional folic acid supplementation guidelines

This audit of peri-conceptional folic acid use in early pregnancy demonstrates inadequacies in both awareness of and compliance with the Department of Health guidelines. If the benefits of folic acid are to be fulfilled then additional efforts to improve public awareness are required.

N-methylation and quaternization of pyridine in vitro by rabbit lung, liver and kidney N-methyltransferases: an S-adenosyl-L-methionine-dependent reaction

The N-methylation of pyridine in vitro, using dialysed and undialysed hepatic, pulmonary, renal and brain preparations from rabbits, is described. Analysis of the quaternary metabolite, N-methylpyridinium ion, was carried out by selective ion-pair extraction and cation-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (h.p.l.c.) using a u.v. detector, and also by direct cation-exchange h.p.l.c. of incubates containing S-adenosyl-L-[methyl-3H]methionine using a flow-through radioactivity detector. N-Methylation of pyridine could be readily demonstrated with dialysed homogenates, 9000 g and 100 000 g supernatant fractions from lung, kidney and liver, but not with any of the brain preparations. 'Pyridine N-methyltransferase' activity was confined to the tissue cytosol, and this enzyme utilized S-adenosyl-L-methionine as the methyl donor. Since the activity of the 'pyridine N-methyltransferase' in rabbit tissues is increased many fold by dialysis, this enzyme, in common with most other N-methylating enzymes, is subject to inhibition by a low-molecular-weight endogenous substance.