Silastic radial head prosthesis in rheumatoid arthritis.

This paper reports our experience of using the Silastic radial head prosthesis in 18 elbow joints affected by rheumatoid arthritis. There was a varying degree of severity of involvement in 15 of the elbows, and in a further 3 cases replacement was carried out at an early stage of the disease. The 3 cases in whom early replacement was carried out had the best results at follow-up and 11 of the remaining 15 were considered to have a satisfactory overall result. The major benefit of operation has been the relief of pain, even in the late cases, whilst preserving stability of the elbow in all but 3 cases.