Radiation therapy for the prevention of heterotopic ossification at the elbow

We present nine patients (five men and four women) who underwent surgical e xcision of clinically significant heterotopic ossification at the elbow. Th ey also received perioperative radiation therapy using total doses between 600 and 1000 cGy, Five received fractionated radiotherapy, with two fractio ns of 500 cGy applied on the first two postoperative days, and the remainin g four were irradiated with single doses of 600 and 700 cGy. After a mean period of observation of 7.7 months (6 to 13) none had radiolo gical recurrence of heterotopic ossification and eight showed clinical impr ovement. Assessment of the functional outcome showed a mean improvement in the Morrey score from 33.3 to 84.5 points indicating a high therapeutic eff icacy of prophylactic irradiation.