NEW ORLEANS — Patients taking GLP-1 agonists before total joint arthroplasty experienced significantly higher rates of preoperative nutritional deficiencies, according to results presented here.
“Patients who are taking GLP-1s, whether for diabetes or for weight loss, were seven times more likely to have nutritional deficiencies, whether that be their protein levels or more minor markers of nutritional deficiency,” William H. Young, MD, resident at UT Health San Antonio, told Healio about results presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.
Young

NEW ORLEANS — Use of a sensor-enabled smart device implanted at the time of total knee arthroplasty may detect periprosthetic joint infection before diagnosis, according to results presented here.
“By monitoring patients’ recovery with a smart device, we noticed a change in three parameters: the range of motion, steps and walking speeds,” Fred D. Cushner, MD, from Hospital for Special Surgery, told Healio. “When range of motion, steps and walking speeds are at a certain level and suddenly go down, patients need to be examined for possible infection.”
Cushner and colleagues retrospectively

Click here to read the Cover Story, “More treatments expand personalized ankle cartilage repair.”
A middle-aged, active patient — the kind who alternates between running along the canals and cycling against the Dutch wind — presents with recurrent deep ankle pain.
Three years earlier, she underwent arthroscopic bone marrow stimulation for a medial osteochondral lesion of the talus, with good initial results and a successful return to pre-injury sports.
Physical examination reveals a well-functioning ankle with good range of motion and neuromuscular control. However, palpation of the medial talus

Click here to read the Cover Story, “Eye rubbing: Screen for it, address causes, make patients aware of consequences.”
Eye rubbing is currently subjectively quantified by questioning the patient or using standardized questionnaires.
However, eye rubbing is often an unconscious reaction to a variety of stimuli, and people are mostly unaware of when and how often they rub their eyes.
We recently developed an innovative solution that uses an AI-powered smartwatch application to objectively detect, quantify and prevent eye rubbing, and it was tested in in a proof-of-concept study.
Smartwatches can

Engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity, even below recommended levels, can significantly improve cancer survival for multiple malignancies.
An evaluation of more than 17,000 patients showed less than 75 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week could reduce the risk for death for bladder, endometrial and lung cancers, and reaching recommended exercise levels could enhance those benefits.
Additionally, individuals with lung cancer or rectal cancer who did not exercise prior to their diagnosis could significantly improve their survival with recommended moderate to vigorous

WASHINGTON — Clearer regulations on reusable items may help reduce surgical waste, according to a speaker at American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.
During the Richard L. Lindstrom Lecture, David F. Chang, MD, said sustainability issues in ophthalmology have made it clear that more multi-use items are needed to reduce operating room waste. However, regulatory classifications make it difficult for surgeons to get their hands on multi-use items.
“For a manufacturer to get a label for [reuse] five times, it has to demonstrate to the FDA it’s safe to reuse 10 times,” Chang, who

Eyedaptic launched EYE7, a new model of smart glasses featuring interactive AI assistants to aid people with vision loss, according to a press release.
Using speakers and microphones built into the glasses, AI assistants can be prompted with hands-free voice commands to perform tasks such as reading text, identifying objects and searching the web. The assistants are conversational in more than 99 languages, according to Eyedaptic.
EYE7 glasses are lighter than EYE6 glasses and have a more sunglasses-like design, longer battery life and larger displays, according to a video on Eyedaptic’s

Click here to read the Point/Counter to this cover story.
Eye rubbing is a common, often involuntary response to stimuli such as stress and fatigue as well as dermatologic and ophthalmologic conditions that cause irritation or itchiness.
While occasional eye rubbing is fundamentally harmless, repeated, intense rubbing can have severe consequences, well known by ophthalmologists but ignored by many people.
“While parents have forever told their children not to touch their eyes, ‘don’t rub your eyes, that’s not good for you’, they don’t fully know the extent of the damage that this might cause,”

Editor’s note: This is a developing news story. Please check back soon for updates.
The FDA granted full approval to sparsentan for proteinuria reduction in adults and pediatric patients aged at least 8 years with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis without nephrotic syndrome, according to a company press release.
With the approval, sparsentan (Filspari, Travere Therapeutics), a dual endothelin-angiotensin II receptor antagonist, becomes the first and only FDA-approved medication for treating focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a rare kidney disorder. Sparsentan previously received FDA

Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances may not raise gestational diabetes risk for pregnant women, according to a pooled analysis of the NIH ECHO Cohort Consortium published in Diabetes Care.
Anne P. Starling, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said previously published studies have indicated that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may impact glucose metabolism for pregnant women. Based on those findings, Starling said the researchers believed that they would find a link between