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Children's Orthopaedics: M. Sibinski, H. Sharma, and G. C. Bennet Early versus delayed treatment of extension type-3 supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children J Bone Joint Surg Br 2006; 88-B: 380-381 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Extension type-3 supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children

Jitendra Mangwani, Claire Giles   (11 April 2006)

Extension type-3 supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children 11 April 2006
Jitendra Mangwani, Specialist Registrar Colchester General Hospital, Claire Giles Send letter to journal: Re: Extension type-3 supracondylar fractures of the humerus in children jmangwani{at}hotmail.com Jitendra Mangwani, et al.	Sir, We read this article with interest. We were surprised at the authors' statement, “In contrast to studies from North America, we used different time criteria”. A delay of greater than 12 hours in the treatment of supracondylar humeral fractures in children has been previously examined by Gupta et al1 with similar conclusions. The authors excluded a total of 85 patients. Even allowing for open fractures (2%) and ipsilateral upper limb fractures (3%), eliminating such a large number of patients due to incomplete data will have significantly reduced the power of the study. This has not been considered by the authors when drawing their conclusions. With a relatively small study sample, was it reasonable to perform a parametric analysis of the data? J. Mangwani, Specialist Registrar, C. Giles, Colchester General Hospital, Colchester, UK. 1. Gupta N, Kay RM, Leitch K, et al. Effect of surgical delay on perioperative complications and need for open reduction in supracondylar humerus fractures in children. J Pediatr Orthop. 2004;24:245-8.