[Surgical treatment of capitellum fractures in the adult. Eight case reports].

Fracture of the capitellum is a rare intra-articular fracture and presents a frontal fracture line. It occurs in adolescents after the age of 13 years and in adults. We report a series of eight patients treated between 1992 and 2002. There were five females and three males with a mean age of 25 years (range: 20-34 years). According to the classification of Bryan and Morrey, three fractures were classified as type I, three as type II and two as type III. All patients were operated on within the first week after injury. The fixation techniques used were screw fixation in five cases and Kirschner wire fixation in three cases. Seven patients had excellent results and one patient had some limitation of range of movement. There were no instances of infection or avascular necrosis. Diagnosis of this fracture is often missed. Poor results of treatment are observed after imperfect reduction, delayed treatment or resection of the capitellum. We report in this study the results of surgical treatment.