The results in twenty-four patients who had had a supracondylar
osteotomy of the humerus to correct post-traumatic cubitus varus were
reviewed after the patients had completed skeletal growth. The average age
of the patients was 7.9 years at operation and thirty-one years at the time
of follow-up. The average duration of follow-up was twenty-three years.
According to our grading system, seven patients had a good; six, a fair;
and eleven, a poor result. All but two of the nineteen patients in whom the
humero-ulnar angle had been measured preoperatively lost correction that
had been obtained at operation. No correlation was found between the
quality of the result and either the age of the patient at operation or the
amount of correction that had been obtained at operation. The correction
that was obtained at operation was maintained in the two patients in whom
the cubitus varus deformity had been caused by malunion of a supracondylar
fracture. However, when the deformity followed either physeal injury or
supracondylar fracture with damage to the physis secondary to the initial
trauma, the correction was not maintained. At the most recent follow-up,
three patients were symptomatic, and fourteen were dissatisfied with the
cosmetic result because of the residual deformity of the elbow or the
postoperative scar, or both. In spite of the partial recurrence of the
deformity, which was sometimes severe, all but the three symptomatic
patients had a very good functional result. Many of these patients worked
at heavy manual labor.