Results of treatment of infected humeral nonunions: The Mayo clinic experience

Between 1987 and 2001, 15 infected humeral nonunions were treated of which nine were distal, four were proximal, and two were midshaft. One patient was lost to followup. The remaining 14 patients were followed up for a mean of 37 months (range, 8-156 months). All patients were treated with debridement and intravenous antibiotics. Ten patients had surgical attempts at achieving bony union: external fixation (four patients), plating (two patients), external fixation and plating (two patients), tension band wiring (one patient), and bone grafting with shoulder spica casting (one patient). Three patients were treated definitively with a functional brace because of low functional demands and one patient had resection arthroplasty followed by delayed total elbow arthroplasty. Of the 10 nonunions treated with surgical attempts at achieving bony union, only seven healed. None of those nonunions in patients treated with a functional brace healed. At final followup, 12 of 14 patients had minimal or no pain and two patients had moderate pain, both with ununited fractures. Complications included one seroma and two cases of posttraumatic elbow stiffness for which the patients required capsular release. This study documents the challenges in achieving bony union in the infected humeral nonunion in contradistinction to the predictable union rates reported for aseptic humeral nonunions. Although pain relief was predictable in most patients, functional results generally were poor and bony union was difficult to obtain.