The results are discussed in order to avoid mistakes in the treatment of supracondylar humeral fracture in children. The appropriate treatment requires exact assessment of the degree and direction of the fracture dislocation, clear definition of the cases in which active treatment, i.e. closed or open reduction and stabilisation, is obligatory, and experience in the operative treatment. A beginning compartment syndrome of the forearm should be detected early by the initial symptoms and immediately treated by fasciotomy.

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A 39-year-old patient suffered a stab wound of the right thenar prominence after an accident with a screwdriver. In the first hospital the deep wound was irrigated with octenidine dihydrochloride/2-phenoxyethanol and closed by suture. During the further course pressure pain and numbness of the right thenar and swelling of the right hand occurred. Three weeks after the accident an operative revision of the wound in a second hospital was performed. The intraoperative findings showed inflammation and necrosis of the right m. abductor pollicis brevis, but no infection with pus.The patient accused the first hospital of irrigating the tissue of his right hand with Octenisept®. The expert option of the Arbitration Board identified improper care in the first hospital with insufficient excision of the wound and incorrect use of the Octenisept® solution. Against the explicit advice of the manufacturing company the wound had been sutured without the possibility of drainage for the Octenisept® solution.

The appropriate treatment of fractures in children requires experience in clinical examination as well as knowledge of radiological anatomy and of the problematic fracture types and localizations. The results reported here should raise consciousness of the possibilities for medical error and thus help prevent future instances of malpractice.