Humeral mobility after treatment with hanging cast

A retrospective review of 23 patients after treatment of humeral fractures with hanging cast was performed. The average followup time was 8.59 years (range, 1.0 to 15.5 years). Functional results were good in eight (34.8%) and excellent in 15 patients (65.2%). To assess the flexibility of shoulder and elbow joints 24 parameters were measured on each body side using the neutral-zero method of Debrunner. A cumulative comparison of each parameter revealed decreased flexibilities of the upper limb after treatment with hanging cast: reduced abduction without moving shoulder blade (84.08 +/- 7.53 vs. 77.34 +/- 11.38; p less than 0.05), reduced free abduction (166.09 +/- 14.4 vs. 158.22 +/- 19.28; p less than 0.01), reduced anteelevation (155.26 +/- 10.12 vs. 149.35 +/- 3.22; p less than 0.01), reduced external rotation with hanging arm (48.96 +/- 19.05 vs. 41.18 +/- 16.75; p less than 0.01), increased flexion of the shoulder (25.65 +/- 10.37 vs 27.3 +/- 10.0; p less than 0.05) and reduced extension of the elbow (0.86 +/- 6.92 vs. -2.68 +/- 9.63; p less than 0.05). These findings show that longterm deficiencies of humeral mobility after treatment with hanging casts exist.