OUTCOME OF ULNAR NEUROLYSIS DURING POSTTRAUMATIC RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ELBOW

We performed ulnar nerve neurolysis and transposition during reconstru ctive operations on 20 consecutive patients (21 elbows) with neuropath y after the failure of primary treatment of elbow fractures. There wer e 11 men and nine women with a mean age of 48.3 years. Preoperatively, four elbows were in McGowan stage I, seven in stage II and ten in sta ge III and the mean Gabel and Amadio ulnar nerve score was 3.2. At a m ean follow-up of 32.1 months (24 to 67) eve performed comprehensive ne urological, functional, electrophysiological and outcome assessments. Patient satisfaction was high with good pain relief and restoration of hand strength and dexterity. The mean Gabel and Amadio score had impr oved to 6.5, an improvement of 3.3. There were one excellent, 16 good, 2 fair and 2 poor results; both of the last were due to failure of th e underlying elbow reconstruction. Even for advanced stage-II and stag e-III lesions we achieved good function, return of intrinsic power, an d a high rate of patient satisfaction.