We reviewed the cases of fifty-six scaphoid non-unions in fifty-five
patients, none of whom had received treatment of any kind before
examination. In the thirty-two patients who had been injured five years or
more earlier, arthritis developed in thirty-one (97 per cent). The one
patient in whom osteoarthritis developed less than four years after injury
also had avascular necrosis of the scaphoid. The incidence of
osteoarthritis increased with time after injury. We concluded that patients
with established scaphoid non-union should be advised that osteoarthritis
will most likely develop.