title: [Effectiveness of medial-lateral double plate internal fixation in treating type C distal humeral fractures].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effectiveness of open reduction and medial-lateral double plate internal fixation for type C distal humeral fractures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between June 2002 and January 2009, 32 patients with distal humeral intra-articular fractures were treated. There were 19 males and 13 females, aged 19-70 years (mean, 43.3 years). The fracture was caused by falling in 7 cases, by traffic accident in 15 cases, by falling from height in 5 cases, by crush injury in 4 cases, and by machine injury in 1 case. The time from injury to operation was 8 hours-7 days (mean, 3.3 days). Of 32 patients, 1 had open fracture and 31 had closed fracture; 5 patients complicated by injury of ular nerve. According to AO/Association for the Study of Internal Fixation (AO/ASIF) classification, there were 9 cases of type C1, 16 of type C2, and 7 of type C3. Open reduction and medial-lateral double plate internal fixation were performed through posterior midline approach in 8 cases and through medial-lateral two-incision approaches in 24 cases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All incisions healed by first intention. The 32 cases were followed up 11-24 months (mean, 14 months). The X-ray films showed that all fractures healed at 3-6 months (mean, 3.8 months). According to Aitken et al. scoring system, the results were excellent in 22 cases, good in 6 cases, fair in 3 cases, and poor in 1 case with an excellent and good rate of 87.5%. In 5 patients with injury of ular nerve, 4 cases completely recovered at 6 months and 1 case still showed some symptoms after 1 year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Treatment of type C distal humeral fractures with open reduction and medial-lateral double plate internal fixation can get good clinical results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan 610072, PR China. zbxva@163.com
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001860:Bone Plates; D005260:Female; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D006810:Humeral Fractures / Q000601:surgery*; D016268:Internal Fixators; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult