From a pool of 131 supracondylar fractures of the humerus in 131
patients who were treated conservatively, all of which healed in an average
time of 4.5 weeks without complications related to the treatment itself,
the cases of fifty-three patients were reviewed at maturity. The average
age at follow-up was twenty-six years. Nine patients had unimportant
limitation of elbow motion, and slight atrophy of the musculature of the
arm or forearm, or of both, was present in six patients. Arm-length
discrepancy was never observed. The carrying angle remained at about the
same value that had been present at the time of fracture-healing in
eighteen patients, decreased in twenty-two patients, and increased in
thirteen. Malrotation of the distal fragment of the fracture only rarely
caused medial tilting of the fragment with consequent cubitus varus. Varus
deformity was present in four patients and valgus deformity, in three. None
of the patients with valgus deformity had ulnar-nerve palsy. According to
our results, varus and valgus deformities of the elbow after supracondylar
fractures of the humerus seem to be caused either by growth imbalance of
the growth plate of the distal end of the humerus (four patients) or by
malreduction of the fracture (three patients). Twelve patients in the
entire pool had neurological complications at the time of the fracture. Ten
of those patients fully recovered from the deficit, whereas two--one with a
radial-nerve deficit and the other with ulnar-nerve involvement--still had
neurological impairment at follow-up.