Minerva

An 18 year collection of data from a teaching hospital in Nigeria (Tropical Doctor 2004;34: 34-6) found that 178 men had been admitted with “acute scrotum.” Acute torsion of the testis accounted for half the cases: it was more common during the harmattan season, a time of cold air and low relative humidity. Similar findings from Canada, Ireland, and Japan suggest that cold air can stimulate exaggerated contraction of the cremasteric muscle. Retraction of the testis may also be associated with exercise, coitus, or a sudden fright.

Enthusiasm for resurfacing the hip joint has come and gone since the days of pioneers such as Judet and Charnley; the attraction of the technique is that it might prove better for young patients, in whom revision is to be expected. A review in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (2004;86B: 157-8) says that new materials seem likely to improve the results; some research teams are claiming that metal to metal resurfacing may give four year survival rates of close to 100%. The conclusion is that current models of hip resurfacing are a considerable improvement on earlier versions—but whether they prove better than total arthoplasty in the long …