• Nelson Bua, Sandeep Krishan Nayar, Gunaratnam Shyamalan, Medhat Zekry, Muhammad Ali Fazal, and Daniel Westacott.
• Registrar in Trauma & Orthopaedics, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: n.bua@nhs.net.
• Injury. 2022 Jun 1; 53 (6): 2069-2073.

BackgroundPaediatric traumatic elbow dislocation occurs in 6 per 100,000 children per year and if not treated promptly can result in a poor outcome. Despite this, the long-term clinical and functional outcome of these injuries has not been well described using modern patient-reported outcome tools. The aim of our study was present the outcome of these injuries in the long term.MethodsTwenty children with an acute traumatic elbow dislocation who presented between February 2007 to February 2016 were included in our study. Patient demographics, management and complications were recorded from the clinical notes. Ten children had associated fractures and were managed surgically, while the remaining were managed with closed reduction and immobilisation. Functional outcomes were assessed with Kim's elbow performance score.ResultsThe mean age was 12 years (7 -15) and follow-up was 8 years (4 - 13). There was one (5%) re-dislocation requiring surgery and one (5%) ulna nerve neurapraxia that resolved within one month. The average Kim's scores were 87.5 (65 - 100) and 77.5 (60 - 100) in the closed reduction and open reduction groups, respectively (P=0.08). 80% (16/20) reported good or excellent outcome with a Kim's score of greater than 75 points with no cases of poor functional outcome reported in our series.ConclusionsTraumatic elbow dislocations in children, with or without associated fracture, have a good long-term functional outcome with appropriate early management.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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