Fifty-six patients who had had a fracture of the scaphoid from January
1950 through December 1959 were interviewed, re-examined, and had
radiographs made of both hands an average of thirty-six years (range,
thirty-one to forty years) later. The average age at the time of the
treatment was twenty-eight years (range, fifteen to forty-five years).
Fifty-two of the fifty-six patients were treated at the time of the
fracture; the other four had a non-union when first seen. The rate of
non-union for the fresh fractures at the most recent follow-up examination
was 10 per cent (five of fifty-two). Dorsal intercalated-segment
instability was found in three of the fifty-six patients; all three had a
pseudarthrosis and manifest radiocarpal osteoarthrosis. Marked radiocarpal
osteoarthrosis developed in only one (2 per cent) of the forty-seven
patients who had a healed fracture; it was far more common in the group
that had a pseudarthrosis, in which the prevalence was five of nine
patients. Manifest osteoarthrosis also seemed to be associated with pain or
weakness: it had developed in only three (6 per cent) of the forty-nine
patients who did not have any symptoms at the re-examination, compared with
three of the seven who had symptoms.