Does Resection of Heterotopic Ossification of the Elbow Result in Satisfactory Functional Outcomes?

Heterotopic bone formation plays a major role in the extrinsic causes of stiff elbow and has been depicted to arise in several situations including traumatic (intra-articular or extra-articular fractures, dislocations, post-surgery), neurogenic (head or spinal trauma) and congenital (fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva) conditions andsevere burns (1-5). The pathophysiology of heterotopic ossification (HO) still remains unclear and the condition is likely to be multifactorial (4,6,7). Histologically, HO is the formation of mature lamellar bone in extraosseous soft tissues (8). The energy of trauma seems to be the major determinant of HO formation. Low energy traumas like simple elbow dislocation cause HO formation in 3% of cases and the prevelance increases up to 45% with high energy distal humerus fractures (5,6,9).