Late presenting lateral condyle fracture of the humerus in children - clinical outcome of surgical fixation

Abstract

Aim: To assess the surgical outcome of Late presenting lateral condyle fracture of the humerus in children with open reduction k-wire/cancellous screw fixation.

Material and Methods: After obtaining approval of the ethics committee, a prospective study was conducted in the department of orthopedics Navodaya Medical College and research center, Raichur from March 2015 to August 2016. 13 cases of Late presenting lateral condyle fracture of the humerus in children underwent surgery with k-wire/cancellous screw fixation. We evaluated scoring system proposed by Dhillon et al. to determine the outcomes.

Results: There were 9 males and 4 females with a mean age of 7 years and 3 months (range 4-13 years). The average time interval between injury and internal fixation was 4.1 weeks. (Range 3 weeks to 7 weeks). In our study 5 patients got Excellent; 6 patients Good; 2 patients Fair; and 1 patient got Poor results. We encountered major complication in 1 patient who devolved AVN lateral condyle of humerus. Minor complications were noted in total 5 patients. Pin tract infection was the most common in 3 patients and one patient had residual flexion deformity of 15 degree with ROM of 110 degree and another patient had stiffness of elbow.

Conclusion: We conclude from our study that late presenting fracture of lateral condyle of humerus needs surgical intervention which can be reasonably reduced and union achieved obtaining satisfactory functional outcome.