[Old post-traumatic dislocation of the radial head in children]

27 cases of neglected post-traumatic dislocations of the radius head were followed up for 30 years. 23 of the cases were neglected Monteggia fractures. The treatment varied over the years from no therapy to the presently used technique of cubital osteotomy associated with surgical repositioning to the radius dislocation. The follow-up results were analysed to determine: 1) whether surgical intervention was justified, as the function of the upper limb of these children was often perfectly good, 2) the type of surgery to use, 3) when such surgery should be done. The results form this study, and the review of 66 previously published cases indicate that surgery may be done on patients of any age, but preferably as early as possible, using precise surgical procedure, as these alone seem to guarantee a first class functional outcome, likely to improve on the pre-operative status of the patients.