ABSTRACT
Objective The application of hinged scaffold in the terrible triad of the elbow has been widely accepted by or-thopedic trauma physicians. We discussed whether to repair the collateral ligament or not of terrible triad of the elbow under hinged ex-ternal fixator in this study. Methods 23 patients with terrible triad of the elbow,who had been admitted in Foshan Hospital of tradi-tional Chinese Medicine from June 2011 to August 2016 were selected. In the surgeries, we firstly repaired and fixed the coronoid and radial head fractures,and the repairments of the lateral collateral ligament complex(LCLC) was based on the severity of injury and the stability of the elbow joint. All the patients were treated with hinged external fixator in flexion 90°,forearm neutral position and the medial collateral ligament complex (MCLC) was not repaired. The patients were followed up from 8 to 26 months with an average of 13.7 months. Elbow flexion and extension amplitude and forearm rotation amplitude were measured at the time of follow-up. The clinical effects were eval-uated according to HSS scoring of elbow joint function. Results Their average elbow range of flexion and extension at the last follow-up is (122.2 ± 11.9)°,LDLC insertion site reconstruction and non-reconstruction has the flexion and extension range of (120.3 ± 13.1)°,(125.6±9.0)°;their average forearm rotation amplitude was(118.7±14.3)°,LDLC insertion site reconstruction and non-re-construction has the forearm rotation amplitude of (116.0±13.1)°,(123.8±16.0)°. HSS score was (82.0±12.6) points.The results were excellent in 7 cases,good in 11. The excellent-good rate was 78.3%. After surgery,1 case developed radial head subluxation,1 case developed nonunion of radial head without recurrent dislocation of elbow joint,6 cases developed ectopic ossification of the elbow joint. Conclusion With the use of hinged external fixator,it is not necessary to repair the MCLC. And the LCLC injury cannot be repaired when it does not cause severe instability of the elbow,with the use of hinged external fixator can get a good effect.