Thirty consecutive patients who had dislocation of the elbow without
concomitant fracture and who were sixteen years old or more were examined
under general anesthesia for stability of the joint at an average of four
days after the injury. All of the elbows showed medial and sixteen showed
both medial and lateral instability. The patients were then randomly
assigned to undergo either non-surgical or surgical treatment of the
ligamentous injuries. All of the surgically treated elbows showed complete
rupture or avulsion of both the medial and lateral collateral ligaments,
and in about half of these patients the muscle origins were found to be
torn from the humeral epicondyles. At follow-up, both groups showed
generally good results; the differences were not statistically significant.
There was no evidence that the results of surgical repair of the ligaments
were any better than those of non-surgical treatment.