Skip to content
Startseite » News » Page 2

News

Comminuted fracture of the elbow joint

I operated on a young patient, an athlete with a rare comminuted fracture in the elbow joint (Fig. before). These injuries are very difficult to treat, as the fragments of the joint surface are often small and it is often not even technically possible to reassemble them.

An operation for a thrower's elbow is shown.

Throwing elbow

A young athlete (pitcher in baseball) injured the medial collateral ligament of the elbow joint while pitching 3 years ago. He was treated in a specialized hospital by replacing the ligament with an artificial fiber.

Artificial elbow joint

Artificial elbow joint

Surgery for an artificial elbow joint (endoprosthesis) is a complex procedure that is performed at only a few clinics. If an elbow arthroplasty is implanted in patients with an elbow fracture, the surgery is even more challenging.

A shoulder dislocation is shown.

Shoulder dislocation

Shoulder dislocation often also results in injury to the humerus or glenoid cavity. A defect (a dent) occurs in the posterior portion of the humeral head, and an anterior portion (of varying size) breaks away from the glenoid cavity of the scapula. If these injuries occur at the same time, the likelihood of the next shoulder dislocation is high.

A doctor holds an artificial knee joint in his hand.

Complicated fractures below the elbow joint

These are demanding procedures for the surgeon, which take 2.5 to 3 hours. The key to success in these cases is the correction of the ulna – reconstruction of its articular surface, restoration of its axis and length, and subsequent fitting with a plate. Then continue with the reconstruction of the upper end of the spoke.

A doctor holds an artificial knee joint in his hand.

Avoid artificial knee joint?

In some cases, it certainly works! It is not uncommon to find axial deviations in the knee area in patients (more often in the form of the letter “O”, less frequently in the form of the letter “X”). If we align the limb axis in good time in these cases, we can either prevent the implantation of a total endoprosthesis altogether or at least delay it by many years.