Acute nerve injury as a complication of closed fractures or dislocations of the elbow.

Twenty-one patients with acute injury of either the median, ulnar, radial, anterior interosseous or posterior interosseous nerves associated with 1540 closed fractures or dislocations of the elbow have been reviewed. The mean time of follow-up was three years and nine months. Nine patients, 6 of whom had ulnar nerve lesions, had persistent evidence of nerve damage. Five patients sustained median nerve lesions complicating supracondylar fractures of the humerus. One patient, in whom there was no evidence of nerve recovery at five months, made a full recovery following neurolysis. Of the 9 patients who sustained ulnar nerve lesions, 2 required neurolysis and anterior transposition of the nerve, at two months and five months respectively, to facilitate recovery. Except for one patient with persistent radial paraesthesiae, full spontaneous recovery occurred in 7 patients who had sustained either anterior interosseous, posterior interosseous or radial nerve lesions.