This is a retrospective comparison of two patient cohorts. The first cohort had arthroscopic resection of the radial head due to primary radiocapitellar arthritis. Group 2 patients had radial head excision combined with ulnar humeral arthroplasty due to more extensive degenerative changes. In patients who underwent radial head excision alone, the arc of motion increased a total of 62 degrees, compared with improvement of only 46 degrees in patients who underwent radial head excision and ulnohumeral arthroplasty. Subjectively, the patients who underwent radiocapitellar decompression with radial head excision had an average Andrews-Carson elbow rating system score from 72-170. This was statistically different than those patients who underwent ulnohumeral arthroplasty, who had an improvement of only 58 points. In addition, two of the patients who had the combined procedure required secondary procedures.
The authors concluded that patients undergoing a radial head excision alone had superior outcomes to those patients who underwent radial head excision combined with ulnohumeral arthroplasty. This is somewhat intuitive as the two groups studied are not comparable. Nonetheless, the results of arthroscopic radial head excision for degenerative changes in the radiocapitellar joints are quite good, and probably superior to the results when treatment of the ulnohumeral joint is required. The study further reinforces the outcomes of radial head excision combined with synovectomy for the treatment of isolated radiocapitellar joint disorders.
Radial, Head, Arthroscopy, Arthroplasty, Elbow, Arthritis
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Journal of Arthroscopy