We reviewed 24 displaced fractures through the physis of the medial epicondyle of the distal humerus. One was a Salter-Harris type-II fracture-separation of the whole distal humeral epiphysis; the others involved only the medial epicondylar centre of ossification. Two cases had presented as pseudarthroses. One fracture had been treated closed in a plaster slab and 21 had had open reduction and internal fixation with sutures, Kirschner wires or Palmer nails. At 2 to 13 years later we found five types of deformity of the epicondyle: pseudarthrosis, an ulnar sulcus, a double-contoured epicondyle, hypoplasia or hyperplasia. Pseudarthrosis had developed after either no treatment, closed reduction and plaster, or open reduction and suturing. Hypoplasia followed nailing, as did a trend to varus tilting of the joint surface. One very young patient, with fracture-separation of the whole distal epiphysis treated by nailing, developed marked cubitus varus.

Ultrasonically guided percutaneous nephrostomy was planned in 98 patients with a total of 128 nephrostomies. The success rate was over 90%. The catheters were maintained from a 1/2 day to 150 days with a median duration of 13 days. 26% of the patients had the catheter replaced, mainly because of displacement. Two major complications were seen, one perforation of the gallbladder and one case of major haemorrhage resulting in a nephrectomy. Two of the 26 patients infected at the puncture died from sepsis. Among cases with low ureteral obstruction untreated prostatic carcinoma and ureteral tumors were the two only categories in which a palliative nephrostomy was beneficial.

Background: Focal skeletal changes in patients with pustulosis palmaris et plantaris (PPP) are known to occur in a minority of patients. It is unknown whether these changes are unique events or whether they merely represent more progressed cases. Objective: The study was undertaken in order to investigate possible diffuse bone changes in patients with PPP. Methods: Bone mineral density (BMD) and biochemical markers of bone turnover were studied in 18 female patients and 18 age-matched controls. Results: A significant correlation was found between lower-forearm BMD and disease duration (< 0.05). With increasing age, patients had significantly lower values than controls for both forearm and spine BMD (p < 0.005); patients who had PPP for more than 2 years had significantly reduced forearm BMD (19.8%; 95% CI: 5.6–32.8%)) and spine BMD (17.4%; 95% CI: 0.9–33.8%). No significant differences were observed in biochemical markers of bone turnover, physical activity or body mass index between patients and controls. The proportion of smokers among patients was four times higher than among controls (p < 0.0005). No significant dose effect was found between number of pack-years and BMD. Conclusion: Although we cannot exclude that prolonged use of topical steroids under occlusion is a confounding factor, the study suggests that PPP patients have decreased BMD due to primary pathogenic events, and that osteoporosis may be an additional problem for these patients.

The sclerosing treatment was successful, thus preventing laparotomy.