Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma

Underlying causes of pulled elbow in children: Could there be a physiopathology similar to transient synovitis of the hip?

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Raheleh Faramarzi 1
Mohammad Davood Sharifi 2
Elnaz Vafadar Moradi 2
Behnaz Alizadeh 2

1 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine Sciences, Mashhad University o Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

2 Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

https://doi.org/10.34172/jept.2020.39
Abstract
Objective: Partial dislocation of radius head (pulled elbow) is the most common trauma observed in out-patient orthopedic treatment of children. The typical mechanism of this trauma includes exertion of longitudinal force along the forearm in a pronation position, causing partial dislocation of the radius head.
Methods: This Retrospective descriptive and cross-sectional study was undertaken on patients referring to the emergency ward of Imam Reza hospital of Mashhad with typical history of partial dislocation of radius head (pulled elbow). The present study was conducted between March 20, 2018 and March 20, 2019. Based on the number of patients at the emergency ward, the sample size was determined to be 80. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to describe the collected data.
Results: From among 80 children diagnosed with partial radius bone dislocation, 66.23% were girls and 33.77% were boys. The age range of patients was 28.08 months for girls and 31.04 months for boys. Findings also showed that 32 patients had a history of recent respiratory infection within 1 week before the pulled elbow incident.
Conclusion: Findings revealed that, similar to previous studies, the pulled elbow injury was more common in girls than in boys. Successful reduction in first and second attempts, notwithstanding the maneuvers used indicated that the success rate of first attempts at reduction was 93%. The history of recent respiratory infections during 1 week before the injury was taken into account, where 40% of the children had some history of such respiratory infections.

Keywords

Epidemiology
Joint dislocation
Radius
Pulled elbow
Subjects
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Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma
Volume 8, Issue 2
July 2022
Pages 95-98

  • Receive Date 04 August 2020
  • Revise Date 07 October 2020
  • Accept Date 11 October 2020

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