Plating versus Ilizarov Technique for Complex Tibial Plateau Fractures: A Comparative Study on Functional Outcome and Patient Satisfaction

ObjectiveTo compare clinical and functional outcomes and complications of open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) by plating and Ilizarov technique in complex tibial plateau fractures. MethodsThis study is a randomized clinical trial accompanying 56 patients having Schatzker type V and VI tibial plateau fractures. We divided patients into two groups for management. Group I; open reduction internal fixation versus Ilizarov technique (Group II). We conducted at the Orthopedics Department, Jinnah post-graduate medical centre, Karachi, from April-2018 to Oct2020. The endpoint assessed patients’ satisfaction and clinical and functional outcomes up to an 18-month follow-up. ResultsThe aetiology of tibial fracture was mainly road traffic accidents (RTA); 17 (70.9%) in ORIF versus 23 (71.8%) in the Ilizarov group. According to clinical outcomes, excellent extension lag was achieved in 100% of patients in both groups. Most patients had excellent knee flexion, thigh atrophy and instability outcomes (54.1% vs 59.37%, 87.5% vs 81.2% and 83.3% vs 87.5%). The functional outcome assessment was done and recorded for 18 months of follow-up. There was no significant difference in normal walking, stair climbing, squatting, jumping and duck walking between the groups. The overall rate of complications was similar; 11 (45.8%) in ORIF versus 17 (53.12%) in the Illizarov group (p-value 0.78). ConclusionOur study concludes that there is an excellent clinical and functional outcome found in both procedures.   DOI: https: //doi. Org/10.59564/amrj/01.01/008

Digital Image Processing Using Soft Computing Techniques and Spline Representations

The work presented in this thesis is devoted to digital image processing techniques using soft computing techniques and spline representations. In particular, it emphasizes on the problems of image interpolation for finding the optimal digital images. In this thesis, four image interpolation schemes are developed which utilize one of the soft computing techniques, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and newly constructed rational Ball Cubic B-spline representation, the cubic trigonometric B-spline representation, the quadratic trigonometric B-spline representation along with the rational cubic B-spline representation to get the resulting interpolated images. Genetic algorithms are used to get the optimal values of shape parameters in the description of the proposed B-spline representations. The proposed schemes are demonstrated with both gray scale and color digital images. Numerical results are collected in terms of well-known image quality metrics including Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structure SIMilarity (SSIM), Multi-Scale Structure SIMilarity (MS-SSIM) and Feature SIMilarity (FSIM) indices to analyze and compare the proposed interpolation schemes with each other and existing ones.