BILATERAL TERRIBLE TRIAD INJURY OF THE ELBOW – A CASE REPORT

Abstract

Considered to be a rare and very disabling condition, bilateral terrible triad of the elbow is a fracture-dislocation, which consists in a fracture of the radial head and also of the coronoid process of the ulna, all of this associated with a posterior displacement of the elbow and high instability. It was named "terrible triad" because of the poor outcome of bone healing and range of motion, both medium and long term. What we present is a special case, first because it was not a unilateral terrible triad injury but bilateral, and because the treatment was different for each elbow, which was interesting for comparing the outcome. Although both radial head fractures were comminuted, with different treatment options, for one of them open reduction and internal fixation was performed, while for the other one our option was replacement of radial head with a prosthesis. For both elbows we obtained good functional outcome at 1-year follow up.