P. Harrington et al., Management of the floating elbow injury in children - Simultaneous ipsilateral fractures of the elbow and forearm, ARCH ORTHOP, 120(3-4), 2000, pp. 205-208
Simultaneous ipsilateral fracture of the elbow and forearm - floating elbow
- is an uncommon injury. During a 7-year period we prospectively followed
12 children who presented with completely displaced supracondylar fractures
of the humerus associated with a forearm fracture of the same limb. All pa
tients underwent emergency operative reduction and percutaneous K-wire stab
ilisation, At a minimum of 18 months, all patients were assessed: clinicall
y and radiologically and the results evaluated according to a conventional
scoring system. Ten patients had good or excellent outcomes, and there were
two fair results. The incidence of open fractures and nerve injury and the
need to perform an open reduction were higher than those recorded for isol
ated supracondylar fractures. The floating elbow is an indicator of a high
energy injury and requires aggressive operative management.