[Centro-medullary nailing in fractures of the upper end of the humerus in children and adolescents].

The authors report a series of 55 fractures of the upper extremity of the humerus in children and adolescents surgically treated by elastic intramedullary nailing. The place of this surgical technique is evaluated in the general treatment of these fractures, which have the prognostic always favorable. The results, with a 1 year follow-up, are all excellent or good on the functional and anatomical plan. The cases of mal union have been rare and the correction is obtained with growth. This way be explained by the capacity of remodeling of the upper humerus. The treatment of fractures of the upper extremity of the humerus is first orthopaedic in children and adolescents, but the osteosynthesis by elastic intramedullary nailing can represent a surgical method of choice in the fractures which are displaced, unstable or which need a thoraco-branchial plaster.