Original articleUnlinked elbow arthroplasty as primary treatment for fractures of the distal humerus
Section snippets
Materials and methods
From July 1999 to May 2002, 13 iBP (Biomet UK, Bridgent, England) unlinked elbow arthroplasties were performed in 13 patients with acute fractures of the distal humerus. All elbows were operated on by a single surgeon. The principal indication was poor bone quality, combined with fracture comminution, that would make successful internal fixation extremely unlikely. Of the patients, 4 died of causes unrelated to the operation, leaving 9 elbows in the study. The remaining 9 patients comprised 8
Results
The 4 deceased patients had regular clinical and radiologic follow-up, and according to our review of the medical records, no complications were recorded and the patients were satisfied with the daily function of their elbows. Of the 9 remaining patients, 1 (patient 7) was not available for the final clinical assessment; however, he had completed 4 years of follow-up without clinical or radiologic complications and had a satisfactory subjective result (Table II). Of the remaining 8 elbows, all
Discussion
There is little information currently on the use of elbow arthroplasty in acute elbow trauma. There are a few reports on the management of acute fractures of the distal humerus with elbow replacement by use of the Coonrad-Morrey linked prosthesis in low-demand elderly patients with comminution and osteopenia.4, 5, 7 These studies have confirmed that primary total elbow arthroplasty is an acceptable option for the management of these difficult fractures.8, 12, 21 More recently, the use of a
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2015, InjuryCitation Excerpt :Since then there has been an increasing number of publications advocating TER as the primary treatment for comminuted fractures of the distal humerus in the elderly. Whereas in the decade prior to 2005, during which TER began to be used as the primary treatment for comminuted fractures of the distal humerus in the elderly, there were only 4 publications reporting the results [6–9] in the subsequent decade to date there have been 11 publications [10–20]. All of these publications reported overall good results and a relatively low incidence of complications with one exception [18].