Interhospital Variability in Treatment of Pediatric Medial Epicondyle Fractures of the Humerus

Abstract

Purpose: Medial epicondyle fractures (MEF) are a common pediatric injury, with little evidence to guide decision-making with respect to treatment. Both casting alone and operative treatment with reduction and fixation have been shown to give reliably good results with low complication rates. High-level comparative studies to establish superiority of one treatment are lacking. We hypothesize that this will lead to large variability in operative treatment rates between hospitals as decisions are based on surgeon and patient preference. The purpose of this study is to describe MEF treatment variation and to evaluate which …