Takahara M, Sasaki I, Kimura T, Kato H, Minami A, Ogino T
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata City, Japan.
J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1998 Sep;80(5):791-7. doi: 10.1302/0301-620x.80b5.8831.
Nine children sustained a second fracture of the distal humerus after union of an ipsilateral supracondylar fracture which had healed with cubitus varus. There were eight boys and one girl with a mean age of five years (1 to 8) at the time of the second fracture which occurred at a mean of 1.5 years after the first. In all patients, the second fracture was an epiphyseal injury of the distal humerus, either associated with a fracture of the lateral metaphysis below the site of the previous supracondylar fracture, or a fracture-separation of the entire distal humeral epiphysis. This suggests that the physis and epiphysis tend to be more subject to injury than the metaphysis of the distal humerus in children who have had a previous supracondylar fracture with varus malunion.
