Examining age differences in duration of wage replacement by injury characteristics

BACKGROUND

One explanation for why older age is associated with greater duration of wage replacement following a work-related injury may be that older workers sustain more severe injuries and different types of injury compared with their younger counterparts.

AIMS

To examine the role of injury-related characteristics in explaining the impact of age on wage replacement duration, and whether the relationship between age and wage replacement duration is consistent across injury types and levels of severity.

METHODS

A secondary analysis of workers' compensation claims in the Australian state of Victoria. In Victoria, only injuries which have accumulated >10 days of wage replacement, or have health care expenditures above a financial threshold, are eligible for compensation. Nested regression models were used to examine the relative contribution of injury-related characteristics to age differences in wage replacement duration.

RESULTS

Older age was associated with greater days of wage replacement among men and women, even after adjusting for injury characteristics. Adjustment for differences in injury types and compensation reporting practices resulted in moderate attenuation of the age-duration relationship among men and small attenuation among women. The age-duration relationship was consistent across injury types/severity.

CONCLUSIONS

The relationship between older age and greater duration of wage replacement is ubiquitous across injuries of different types and severity. Future research is required to understand better why older age is consistently associated with worse compensation outcomes following work-related injury.

A huge osteoblastoma with aneurysmal bone cyst in skull base

We reported a case of a huge osteoblastoma in the skull base of a young girl who had developed blindness in her right eye 1 year prior to examination. CT showed a large expansile bony lesion with eggshell margin over the skull base. MR imaging showed mixed solid and cystic parts with multiple fluid-fluid levels in the lesion. The optic chiasma and bilateral optic nerves were severely compressed by the tumor.

MR imaging findings of entrapment of the flexor hallucis longus tendon

OBJECTIVE

In this retrospective study, we describe the MR imaging patterns of various causes of flexor hallucis longus tendon entrapment.

CONCLUSION

Entrapment of the flexor hallucis longus tendon may be due to an enlarged os trigonumtarsitarsi, calcaneal fracture, and soft-tissue scar. These disorders have characteristic imaging findings that may be revealed on MR imaging.