TY - JOUR AU - Ritali, Alice AU - Rotini, Roberto AU - Cavallo, Marco AU - Marinelli, Alessandro AU - Guerra, Enrico PY - 2020/03/22 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Instability/stiffness in elbow fracture dislocation JF - Lo Scalpello - Journal JA - Lo Scalpello VL - 34 IS - 1 SE - Trauma Meeting DO - 10.36149/0390-5276-004 UR - https://www.loscalpellojournal.com/article/view/146 SP - 30-35 AB - Elbow motion is essential for upper extremity function to position the hand in space. After fracture dislocations of the elbow significant complications include: post traumatic stiffness (HO and restricted motion) with arthritis, instability, ulnar neuropathy and neuritis, deep infection and nonunion. Stiffness and instability, among all these complications, are indeed the most recurring and, because there is a limited compensatory motion in adjacent joints, even mild/moderate loss of elbow motion is perceived as disabling. A stiff or unstable elbow is very poorly tolerated because of the lack of compensatory motion in adjacent joints, so many patients ask for surgery to treat these complications. In consideration of the wide variety of clinical presentations, we have developed a classification for instability and one for stiffness that can also provide indications on correct surgical treatment. Regarding instability, to develop our classification we use two parameters, stabilizers involved (simple, avulsion of soft tissues; complex, bone fractures + soft tissues lesion) and timing (acute and chronic. Chronic instabilities present two subtypes: recurrent and persistent). Similarly the stiffness classification is based on these parameters: prevalent type of stiffness, type of feasible surgery and type of approach (open or arthroscopy). ER -