This week in the BMJ
Volume 332, Number 7548, Issue of 29 Apr 2006Hamstring autografts may be better than patellar tendon autografts
Hamstring autografts may be better than patellar tendon autografts
Patients with hamstring autografts report fewer anterior knee symptoms and extension deficits than patients with bone-patellar tendon-bone autografts for reconstruction of anterior cruciate ligament. Biau and colleagues (p 995) conducted a meta-analysis of 18 studies that evaluated stability and morbidity after treatment with hamstring or patellar tendon autograft. Stability of the two autografts was found to be similar. Study quality was poor, however, for nine of the studies and fair for the other nine, which calls into question the robustness of the analyses.
|
![[To top]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Don't forget the children of newly diagnosed cancer patients
Children are aware of the life threatening nature of cancer and need more information about the different treatments and causes of cancer when cancer is diagnosed in a parent. In a qualitative study, Forrest and colleagues (p 998) interviewed 37 mothers with early breast cancer and 31 of their children aged between 6 and 18 years. They found that many children needed more preparation for seeing their mother after surgery and some would have liked to talk to their mother's clinicians.
|
Early social factors may affect adolescents' physical activity
Social and behavioural factors in early life may be more important than early biological characteristics in determining activity levels in young adolescents. Hallal and colleagues (p 1002) followed more than 4400 children from birth to the age of 10-12 years and found that by then 58% of them had a sedentary lifestyle; risk factors were female sex, high family income at birth, low birth order, and low physical activity at age 4. In contrast, weight gain variables during childhood and being overweight at age 1 or 4 years did not significantly predict activity levels in early adolescence.
|
Do English medical schools need a single admissions process?
Although criteria used by English medical schools to select future medical students are similar, the methods for identifying the "correct" students for admission—for example, interviews, shortlisting—vary substantially. In a review study of 22 medical schools, Parry and colleagues (p 1005) suggest that different approaches to admissions should be tested to decide a single process for selection. In a commentary, however, Norman (p 1008) claims that some diversity of selection is desirable because of different educational cultures in different schools.
|
Predicting the "strugglers" in medical school
Late acceptance onto an undergraduate medical course and the presence of "negative comments" in the academic reference may be risk factors for performing less well in medical school. Yates and James (p 1009) compared undergraduate medical students from Nottingham University who had experienced difficulties on their course with non-struggling students from the same course to identify potential predictors of struggling. The authors say that their results support retention of existing selection practices relating to academic achievement and critical review of students' references.
|
What's new
Keep updated
Services
Tools
Online poll
Resources
Print issues
