The Mahmood Merican Award is an annual award for the best original scientific or clinical study submitted by young trainees in orthopaedic surgery in Malaysia, for presentation during the annual scientific meeting of the Malaysian Orthopaedic Association (MOA). This award was initiated in 1997 to encourage high standard of research and scientific presentations among young trainees.A cash prize of RM 1,000 was donated by Dato Dr Mahmood Merican. All Award finalists will represent MOA as ambassadors to regional orthopaedic association meetings, a duty that will be fully sponsored by MOA.
Splinter or foreign body removal from the hand and foot is a common occurrence. Usually only the deep seated, broken or missed splinters are referred to the surgeon for removal. Unless the object is radio-opaque, plain radiograph will not give any useful information, hence removal can sometimes be very difficult and traumatic. We are reporting a case where a radiolucent splinter was removed with the aid of ultrasonography. This modality can help to localize a splinter at the pre and intra-operative period, minimizing amount of exploration and time of operation.
A 27-year-old patient with ameloblastoma of the mandible
underwent anterior mandibulectomy and reconstruction with
left fibula osteocutaneous flap. The bone was shaped at the
lower limb before cutting the pedicle. Vascularised free fibula flap provides a good alternative to other bone grafts in mandible reconstruction as it is relatively easy to perform, carries a low complication rate, and mandibular shaping with intact pedicle cuts down on ischaemic as well as total operative time.
We are reporting four cases of serious washing machine related injury that presented within a period of 5 months. All patients were young children with the mean age of 9 year-old and three had their dominant hand injured. The washing machines involved were the automatic top loader type and all injuries occurred during the spinning phase. Serious automatic washing machine injury is not uncommon in Malaysia. We feel that there is a need to improve the safety features especially during the spinning phase. The operating instructions and safety precautions on the washing machine should be displayed in different languages that can be understood well. Parents should also aware of the potential risks of this seemingly benign household appliance.
We report a case of a 55-year-old man who presented with a 6-month history of a fungating ulcer on the right hand at the site of a previously healed ulcer that had been present for 40 years. Histopathological examination of four-quadrant biopsy specimens showed a moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). A transradiocarpal amputation with stump closure using radial flap was performed as it was not possible to achieve a functionally and cosmetically acceptable hand after a wide excision with 2 cm tumour-free margin. It is our intention to highlight this rare condition as reminder to consider this entity as a differential diagnosis of chronic non-healing skin ulcer.