Interactive Transcript
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Let's start with PLRI.
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The typical mechanism for this injury,
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which can result in an elbow dislocation
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without a fracture is a fall on outstretched hand.
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As shown here. Three major forces relate
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to this mechanism of injury.
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The first one easy to understand is axial compression shown
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by that blue arrow at the bottom.
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Okay, that would be the first of these.
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The second would be bending or valgus force.
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And you can see by the orange, uh, double-headed arrows
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that occurs at the level of the wrist, at the level
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of the elbow, at the level of the shoulder,
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worse at the level of the shoulder,
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but certainly moderate at the level of the elbow.
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And then the third force is a rotational force or torsion
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because the body falls over
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that fixed uh, arm.
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And this relates or produces supination of the forearm.
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So those are the forces that are involved.
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Now, there are some clinical tests that can be used for this
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axial compression with supination valgus stress.
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This could be done in a single position
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or with various degrees of elbow flexion and extension.
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With conventional radiography, you may not see anything,
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but if you're dealing with a fairly severe PLRI,
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you may see a fracture back here created
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during a dislocation in which the radial head impacted
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the posterior aspect of the Capella.
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More about that in a few minutes.
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The abnormality that occurs
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with PLRI involves the horri circle
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about the elbow.
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The abnormalities are staged as shown here
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with three stages beginning laterally,
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and then extending both posteriorly
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and anteriorally to the medial aspect of the elbow joint.
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With these stages, more and more rotation
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and eventually dislocation occurs.
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So let's look at this
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and note with the drawing,
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this results in external rotation of the forearm.
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The stage one injury is an injury leading to tearing of
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that lateral ulnar collateral ligament shown here
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with a picture of the lateral side.
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You may see minor asymmetry on a radiograph, particularly
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with stress radiography,
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but the radiograph may look surprisingly normal.
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Here's an example of what would be a stage one.
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We've disrupted the lateral ulnar collateral ligament.
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You can see that in the middle here, there's actually a bone
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Abnormality as well.
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This finding alone
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with normal medial ligaments would make this
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as stage one compatible with stage one
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PLRI.
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The stage two injury results in a perched position
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with further external of the forearm.
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Now, as we look at the lateral side to disruption
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of the lateral ulnar co collateral ligament,
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we've added disruption of the radial collateral ligament
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and the capsule begins to tear extending laterally to mely,
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both anteriorly and posteriorly.
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For stage three, there are two subgroups.
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Stage three A can be a dislocation
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of the elbow joint.
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As we look at it, we can see here
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that the capsule we're looking at the medial side.
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So the capsular tearing has extended anteriorly
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and posterior to the medial side,
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and the first ligament that tears is that posterior bundle
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of the medial collateral ligament and ni.
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And finally, with stage three B
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and a dislocation,
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what you will see on the medial side will be also disruption
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of the anterior bundle of the medial collateral ligament.
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So the problems began laterally
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and then involved the medial structures extending from the
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lateral to the medial side, both anteriorly and posteriorly.
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And with a full dislocation, the stage three injury
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that radial head may have contacted the posterior aspect
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of the Capella.
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You may see that on an MR as a bone contusion
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or a fracture sometimes with the bone fragment
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as shown on the picture on your right, this is known
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as the Osborne Cordal lesion.
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It is a very important finding.
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The fracture you can see even with radiographs,
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but you see the findings better with CT or mr.
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If you see this, you're probably dealing with postal lateral
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rotary instability as the cause of the elbow dislocation.
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Now, you don't have to have this fracture.
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So PLRI can produce an elbow dislocation without
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any fracture differing from the fractured dislocations I
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talked about earlier.
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So here's an example of a stage three B elbow dislocation,
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PLRI mechanism.
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You can see there's extensive disruption
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of the medial collateral ligament.
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We're showing you disruption here of the anterior bundle.
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There's all kinds of disorganization, both of tendons
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and ligaments on the lateral side.
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This is PLRI. Here's another example.
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Look at this. These are injuries widespread involving
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tendons and ligaments, both sides of the elbow,
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but there's not a significant fracture.
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Now I know this particular, uh, person, he is a good friend
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of mine, and the mechanism of his injury
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was a little bit unusual.
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He was visiting an ostrich farm
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and they, there was one big ostrich
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and there was a fenced area,
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but his kids stayed outside of the fence.
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He went in, he loves to take photographs,
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and so he began photographing this particular ostrich
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as kids threw some stones at the ostrich.
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The ostrich turned toward my friend inside the cage.
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This was the next picture he took
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as the ostrich charge toward him.
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And then after that, he took one final picture like this.
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And you can see what happened to him among the injuries
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included an elbow dislocation.
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I'm not sure how he punished the kids after this,
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but he was a bit angry about this encounter.
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Now, there are some who believe
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that you can have a valgus injury
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that will result in an elbow dislocation
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without a fracture.
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Here's an examples taken from the literature of what
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that might look like in a football player,
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what it might look like through a diagram.
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And this has raised, or this diagnosis is raised.
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When you see examples like this one
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where there's been an elbow dislocation
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that's been documented
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and that the major abnormalities around the medial side here
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with complete tearing
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and the abnormalities on the lateral side are minor
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because that does not go along with the mechanism
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of PLRI.