title: Incidence of postoperative elbow contracture release in New York State.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the incidence of elbow contracture requiring release after surgically treated elbow trauma and to identify patient, injury, and treatment factors that may predict contracture development.
  
  
  METHODS
  The New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database identified 32,708 patients who were surgically treated for elbow trauma from 1997 to 2009. The database identified 270 of those patients who underwent subsequent contracture release. The median time from index fracture procedure to contracture release was 31 weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients requiring a contracture release were younger (43 vs 56 y) and more commonly male (57%). Injuries classified as severe were more common in the contracture group (11% vs 5%), as were open fractures (17% vs 11%). A multivariate regression analysis revealed that patients with burns were 16 times more likely to require surgical contracture release, and the use of internal fixation to treat the fracture was protective against contracture development.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence of elbow contractures treated with release after surgically treated elbow trauma was low but increased with the severity of the initial trauma.
authors.affiliation: Center for Clinical Outcomes Research and Hand Surgery, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Schrumpf
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lyman
authors.forename: Huong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Do
authors.forename: Joseph J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Gay
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marx
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daluiski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003286:Contracture / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D004551:Elbow Joint / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D057072:Intra-Articular Fractures / Q000601:surgery; D004204:Joint Dislocations / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009518:New York; D055815:Young Adult; D000092464:Elbow Injuries
keywords: Elbow contractures; elbow trauma; post-traumatic contracture