Paediatric Floating Elbow-A Prospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: Due to increased number of trauma cases, several injuries in the same limb are not an uncommon entity now. Literature describes the floating elbow as a forearm fracture and supracondylar fracture of humerus in same extremity. Aim: The purpose of the study was to evaluate our experience in dealing with such uncommon injury. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective interventional study of floating elbow in younger age group. All the cases were managed by K-wire fixation and followed up to the average of 20 months. All the patients were followed by clinical and radiological mean. Functional score were obtained by Mayo Elbow Performance Score (MEPS) and Khalfayan score. Results: Results are based on 17 cases with average age of 9.58 years. The fracture healing was noticed at average of 9 weeks with average range of movement of 95 degree. Conclusion: Floating elbow is a serious injury. Injury type is out of the way and treatment recommendations are polemical. In our experience, this injury can be best treated by aggressive surgical intervention.

Keywords

• ipsilateral forearm fracture
• severe injury
• supracondylar fracture of humerus