Despite increasing use of bone graft in Malaysia, there was still lack of data to quantify knowledge level on bone banking among orthopaedic community who are involved in transplantation related work. Therefore, a survey on awareness in tissue banking specifically bone banking, usage and choice of bone grafts was conducted. From 80 respondents, 82.5% were aware about tissue banking however only 12.5% knew of the existence of tissue banks in Malaysia. Femoral head was the bone allograft most often used as a substitute to autograft. Only 34.8% respondents preferred irradiated bone grafts whilst 46.9% preferred nonirradiated, indicating the need to educate the importance of radiation for sterilising tissues. Exhibition was the most preferred medium for awareness programme to disseminate information about bone banking in the orthopaedic community. The professional awareness is necessary to increase the knowledge on the use of bone graft, hence to increase bone transplantation for musculoskeletal surgeries in the country.

This study assessed the effectiveness of a biorational control approach using 2% hydramethylnon gel bait on German cockroaches, Blattella germanica (L.) in some residential and hospital buildings in South Western Iran. In total, three buildings consisting of 150 apartment units and 101 hospital units were monitored weekly via sticky trap for German cockroach infestations over a period of eight months. These infested units were randomly subjected to intervention and control treatments. Pamphlets and posters were provided and lectures were given to support the educational programmes as a tactic of the biorational system. Survey on cockroach index for intervention units showed 67-94% recovery to achieve clean level of infestation for intervention units of the residential buildings and 83% for the hospital. Mean percentage reductions for treatment groups throughout the 15-week treatment period were 76.8% for the residential buildings and 88.1% for the hospital, showing significant differences compared to the control groups. Linear regression of infestation rates were recorded weekly after treatment and their negative slope for treatment groups substantiated significant reductions for interventions. The results of this study showed that biorational control method, using gel bait, educational programmes and sanitation, is an effective way to manage German cockroach infestation.

The incidence of humeral osteomyelitis is relatively rare as compared to incidence of lower limb osteomyelitis. Despite having no guideline in the management of humeral osteomyelitis, surgeons have utilised their experience in managing lower limb osteomyelitis to treat humeral osteomyelitis. By adhering to principles including thorough debridement of necrotic bone and soft tissue, staged bony and/or soft tissue reconstruction, and targeted antimicrobial therapy, a good outcome can be achieved in the management of humeral osteomyelitis. We report a case of Cierny-Mader type IV proximal humeral osteomyelitis after a severe crush injury of the left shoulder and its subsequent two-stage reconstruction using internal fixation and pedicled Latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap.

Freeze drying is a dehydration method to dry bone under freezing environment, enabling removal of water with no or minimial effects on bone strength and durability. Larger size bones obviously require longer freeze drying time to reduce water content to the required level for long term storage at room temperature. For small size bone cubes or chips, it is a normal practice to pool cortical and cancellous bones for freeze drying. The study was aimed at determining if different type of bones of the same size influence the drying time. Human bone cubes of 10 mm x 10 mm x 10 mm were prepared from cortical bone of tibiae and cancellous bone from femoral heads. The bone cubes were freeze dried to reduce water content to less than 6%. Moisture content was monitored using gravimetric method.Weight and density of cortical bone were significantly higher than cancellous bone despite of having similar small size (p<0.05). Cortical bones (density 2.05 ± 0.35 g/cm3) with initial water content of 10.93% required 5 hours to freeze dry, while cancellous bone cubes (density 0.72 ± 0.44 g/cm3) with initial water content of 78.95% required only 1.87 hours. This study confirmed that the structure hence density of human bone cubes determine the freeze drying time. Therefore in the standard operating procedure for freeze drying of bone allograft cubes, high density cortical bone cubes and low density cancellous bone cubes must be freeze dried separately despite being of similar small size