A Follow-up of One Hundred Cases of Fracture of the Head of the Radius with a Review of the Literature

THE elbow joint tolerates trauma poorly and even radiologically minor injuries can be followed by major disability. Fracture of the radial head is the commonest elbow injury, accounting for 37 per cent. of this injury at the Royal Victoria Hospital in the period under review (44 per cent. Murray (1940); 30 per cent. Mason (1954)). In the two-and-a-half-year period, 1st January, 1958-30th June, 1960. 175 fractures of the radial head were treated at the Royal Victoria Hospital. This represented 1.7 per cent. of a total of 10,200 fresh fractures. Of the 175, for variouis reasons, only 100 could be reviewed. These form the basis of this paper. Seventy per cent. were fenmale. The average age was 41 years, with extremes of 14 and 66 years. The elbow was X-rayed at the time of review in all cases and in those patients in whom the head of the radius had been excised X-rays were also taken of the wrist. The minimum period between injury and review was one year. MECHANIS[ OF INJURY.