Health status after open elbow contracture release

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Reconstructive Surgery
• Traumatology

Background:

• Posttraumatic elbow stiffness significantly impacts patient function and quality of life.
• Operative contracture release is a potential treatment to restore elbow motion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of open elbow contracture release in improving elbow motion.
• To determine if improved elbow motion correlates with enhanced general health status and reduced upper-extremity disability.
• To identify predictors of successful outcomes after surgery.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 23 patients with posttraumatic stiff elbows underwent open elbow capsulectomy.
• Patients completed validated questionnaires (DASH, SF-36) preoperatively and postoperatively.
• Pain was assessed using the ASES Elbow Evaluation instrument.

Main Results:

• Elbow range of motion significantly improved from 51° to 106° postoperatively (p < 0.05).
• Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) and Short Form-36 (SF-36) scores showed significant improvement (p < 0.05).
• No significant correlation was found between the improvement in elbow motion and the changes in DASH, SF-36 Physical Component Summary (PCS), or Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores.

Conclusions:

• Open elbow contracture release effectively improves health status and reduces disability in patients with posttraumatic elbow stiffness.
• The degree of motion improvement does not directly correlate with functional gains.
• Pain emerged as a significant predictor of overall patient outcomes and arm-specific disability.