TY  - JOUR
T1  - Commentary on an article by Eric W. Edmonds, MD: “How Displaced Are ‘Nondisplaced’ Fractures of the Medial Humeral Epicondyle in Children? Results of a Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography Analysis”
AU  - Brown, Desmond
Y1  - 2010/12/01
N1  - 10.2106/JBJS.J.01383
JO  - The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery
SP  - e33 1
EP  - 2
VL  - 92
IS  - 17
N2  - 
In this paper, the author assesses the extent of displacement of a medial epicondylar fracture of the distal end of the humerus in eleven skeletally immature patients, using both radiographs and computed tomography (CT) scans. One fracture was identified as being a medial condylar fracture and was excluded; another fracture was nondisplaced on both the radiograph and CT scan and so did not contribute to the data about displacement. In the remaining nine fractures, the author was able to measure anterior displacement on only one of the lateral radiographs, whereas CT scans demonstrated an average of 8.8 mm of anterior displacement of these fractures. Medial displacement measured an average of 3.9 mm on anteroposterior radiographs compared with an average of 0.3 mm on CT scans. Internal oblique radiographs provided a measure of displacement similar to the anterior displacement seen on CT scans of two patients, but underestimated the displacement in three others. The author concluded that radiographs often do not provide an accurate measure of displacement for medial humeral epicondylar fractures. He suggested that the apparent medial displacement seen on anteroposterior radiographs is actually anterior displacement, visible because of slight obliquity of the anteroposterior view.

SN  - 0021-9355
M3  - doi: 10.2106/JBJS.J.01383
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2106/JBJS.J.01383
ER  -