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Orthopaedics

Elbow

Built from Orthopedic Trauma Essentials

What’s inside

7 sections · 107 slides

  1. 01

    Overview

    • What this covers
    • The two enemies of every elbow injury

    2 slides

  2. 02

    Reading the injured elbow

    The parts, the words, and why this joint punishes delay

    • Why the elbow is unforgiving
    • Bones of the elbow from the front
    • The bony parts that hold the elbow in place
    • Elbow and forearm from the front
    • What each bony block resists
    • Four words used constantly here
    • What a good reduction looks like
    • How the joint is assessed after injury

    8 slides

  3. 03

    Elbow dislocations

    Which ligament goes first, how long to rest it, and who needs an operation

    • How does an elbow come out of joint?
    • The prevailing model: failure from outside in
    • The cadaver experiment behind it
    • Who backed this sequence
    • The challenge: failure from inside out
    • Two rival routes to the same dislocation
    • So which model is right?
    • The old habit: splint it and wait
    • Why long immobilisation backfires
    • What the trials found
    • FuncSiE and the verdict on timing
    • Rest versus early motion, side by side
    • Does a simple dislocation ever need surgery?
    • The case for leaving it alone
    • The case for repairing it
    • Where the line sits
    • The stability-based rule

    17 slides

  4. 04

    Terrible triad injuries

    Three injuries in one elbow, and the slow retreat from mandatory surgery

    • What makes a triad terrible
    • The three components
    • Why surgery became the default
    • Can a terrible triad ever be left alone?
    • The four selection criteria
    • The radiocapitellar joint on X-ray
    • Which fractures qualify for no surgery
    • Read the small print
    • What the coronoid actually does
    • The coronoid process seen from the side
    • Should every coronoid be fixed?
    • The size story, and where it fails
    • The fracture that must be fixed
    • The fracture you may leave
    • Deciding on the coronoid
    • The coronoid rule to remember
    • Moving a repaired elbow
    • What the reviews found on timing
    • If it is stable at the end of surgery
    • If it is not stable at the end of surgery
    • Early versus delayed motion after surgery

    21 slides

  5. 05

    Radial head fractures

    Fix it, replace it, or take it out — and when each is right

    • Why the radial head matters
    • The radial head close up
    • The Mason classification
    • Why type II is the battleground
    • The argument over Mason type II
    • The randomised answer
    • What the reviews added
    • So when do you operate on a type II?
    • Fixation is not free
    • When the radial head is smashed
    • Fix it or replace it?
    • Where fixation wins, and where it struggles
    • Where replacement wins
    • What the pooled evidence says
    • The selective algorithm
    • The operation that fell out of favour
    • Why excision became risky
    • Where excision still has a place
    • Arthroscopic matched resection
    • Radial head: the whole decision

    20 slides

  6. 06

    Olecranon fractures

    Wires, plates and sutures — and why the frail elderly may need none of them

    • The point of the elbow
    • Bones of the elbow from behind
    • Three ways to hold an olecranon together
    • An olecranon fracture before and after tension band wiring
    • The landmark trial
    • The other side of the same trial
    • Wires versus plates
    • What reviews and biomechanics add
    • The suture alternative
    • But sutures have a ceiling
    • Choosing a fixation for Mayo type II
    • The elderly olecranon fracture
    • Nonunion — a word worth pausing on
    • What the trials show in the elderly
    • Duckworth and what followed
    • The cost of operating in this group
    • Operate or not in the frail elderly
    • How to decide with an elderly patient
    • Why fixation slips at the proximal fragment
    • How reduction is lost
    • Stainless steel wire — the benchmark
    • Ethibond — handy but weaker
    • The strong suture: UHMWPE
    • The three augmentation materials
    • Augmentation in practice
    • The bottom line on augmentation

    26 slides

  7. 07

    Pulling it together

    What actually changes your practice

    • What to remember: dislocations and triad
    • What to remember: radial head and olecranon
    • “
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    • Orthopedic Trauma Essentials 2026

    13 slides