Seventeen patients had a Silastic prosthesis for the radial head
inserted following fracture of that structure. Follow-up averaged 6.7
years. Nine of the seventeen patients had had an associated dislocation of
the elbow or a Monteggia fracture. Six patients received the implant at the
time of the treatment for the fracture and all six were doing well,
although the implant had failed radiographically in three of the six. There
were five failures among the other eleven patients; four of the five had
the prosthesis removed. On the basis of these data, we concluded that the
indications for use of the Silastic radial-head prosthesis after fracture
are extremely limited, and its routine use cannot be justified.