Arthroscopic treatment of post-traumatic elbow contracture☆
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Between May 1998 and October 1999, 14 elbows in 14 consecutive patients were treated with an arthroscopic procedure for post-traumatic elbow contracture. No open releases were performed during this particular collection period, as no patient met the criteria for exclusion. All patients were available for review at a minimum follow-up of 1 year (range, 12-29 months). There were 8 men and 6 women. The mean age at the time of surgery was 36.9 years (range, 18-57 years). The dominant elbow was
Pain relief
In addition to loss of motion, 11 of the 14 patients also reported pain as a primary complaint. At the latest follow-up, 6 continued to report some pain. In 4, the pain was minimal and occurred only with activity (mean maximum pain score, 3.25/10). The remaining 2 patients complained of some pain at rest. No patient had worse pain, and none had new pain develop as a result of the procedure. All elbows were stable both preoperatively and at the latest follow-up examination, and all had normal
Discussion
Early reports on open surgical release procedures for the post-traumatic stiff elbow generally had satisfactory results.4, 20, 21 Urbaniak et al19 reported a mean improvement in extension from 48° to 19° in 15 patients. In a series of 7 patients, Husband and Hastings7 reported a mean improvement in extension from 45° to 12°, with flexion improving from 116° to 129°. More recently, Mansat and Morrey12 reported improved range of motion in 89% of 38 elbows, with a mean total gain in the
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