Poppy – Intercondylar Fracture Distal Humerus In The Elbow Joint

The Catastrophe

Little Poppy is a tiny little Miniature Pinscher weighing only 2Kg at the time of the injury. She was prancing and bouncing around her mums feet whilst mum was in the kitchen doing chores.

Unfortunately the wee little soul got under mums feet and there was a terrible scream. Mum was beside herself with worry and rushed to Treendale Pet Medical. Poor little Poppy.

When she arrived she was holding up her front left leg and she would not put it down. Dr Rob thought there was a lot of pain around the elbow and recommended some X-rays.

The Fracture

Poppy had a very nasty injury indeed. Her humerus was broken in several places at the elbow. This is one of the worst fractures that can happen and is extremely difficult to fix.

Poppy also has bones like match sticks. This was a very, very difficult fracture to repair. The bone is split between the two condyles of the distal humerus so the elbow has literally been split in two and to make matters worse the bone was also fractured above the intercondylar fracture

The Repair

This is the type of fracture that brings even specialists to tears. Dr Rob had a job in front of him to fix this one. Luckily Dr Rob had spent some time in America being trained by American specialists who had given him some great tips on how to repair these very challenging fractures.

Dr Rob managed to get a screw across the distal humerus uniting the condyles and managed perfect alignment so there would be no arthritis in the joint. He then placed a pin up into the proximal segment of the humerus to hold the fragments together.

Poppy had a bandage on her leg for a few weeks but it healed incredibly well. The last time Dr Rob saw Poppy you would never know her elbow had been shattered. She wasn’t lame at all. This was an incredible result for such a nasty debilitating fracture into the elbow joint.