JBJS welcomes reader comments on published articles. Letters to the Editor are reviewed by JBJS editors but are not peer-reviewed. To submit your letter, please follow the "submit a response" link that appears in the content box at the upper right of the full text of the article.

Letters to the Editor to:

Scientific Articles:
James S. Davitt, Nancy Kadel, Bruce J. Sangeorzan, Sigvard T. Hansen, Jr., Sarah K. Holt, and Emily Donaldson-Fletcher
An Association Between Functional Second Metatarsal Length and Midfoot Arthrosis
J Bone Joint Surg Am 2005; 87: 795-800 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
*Letters to the Editor: Submit a response to this article

Electronic letters published:

[Read Letter to the Editor] Editor's Note
Robert Poss MD   (7 July 2005)
[Read Letter to the Editor] A Question About the Exclusion Criteria For this Study
George F. Wallace   (7 July 2005)

Editor's Note 7 July 2005
Previous Letter to the Editor Top
Robert Poss MD,
Deputy Editor
Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery

Send letter to journal:
Re: Editor's Note

possr{at}jbjs.org Robert Poss MD

The corresponding author has been invited to respond to the letter by Dr. Wallace and to date, has not done so.

A Question About the Exclusion Criteria For this Study 7 July 2005
Next Letter to the Editor Top
George F. Wallace,
Podiatry
University Hospital-UMDNJ, Newark, NJ 07103

Send letter to journal:
Re: A Question About the Exclusion Criteria For this Study

wallacgf{at}umdnj.edu George F. Wallace

To the Editor:

In the article "An Association Between Functional Second Metatarsal Length and Midfoot Arthrosis", the authors state that no trauma patients were included in their series. However, upon inspection of their Figure 2, there appears to be a step off (malalignment) at the medial borders of the second and intermediate cuneiform respectively. This would signify a Lisfranc fracture dislocation, albeit subtly. The arthrosis then would be from a traumatic event and hence should not have been included in the study population.

One can argue that the step off is an anatomical "variant" but information about the other foot is lacking. Likewise, no other views of the same foot or CT scans are mentioned or depicted which could be used to definitively make the diagnosis of a Lisfranc injury and the sequela of arthrosis of the second metatarsal intermediate cuneiform articulation.

At the least, the choice of inserting Figure 2 could be confusing to the reader and does not appear to match their exclusion criteria. I look forward to the authors' comments.

Sincerely,

George F. Wallace, DPM, MBA

Director, Podiatry Service

University Hospital-University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

150 Bergen Street, A-226

Newark, NJ 07103