Olecranon Fracture Fixation

The olecranon is the "point" of the elbow. It is made of strong, robust bone, but it still can be fractured in a fall.

When the olecranon is fractured, it is often unstable because of the pull of the large triceps muscle.

For this reason, many olecranon fractures end up being treated surgically.

This particular fracture was stabilized with a plate and screws. The hardware in this location can have a relatively high rate of removal (20-30%), as the skin coverage is thin, and sometimes hardware can be bothersome. Hardware can usually be removed in a procedure with relatively quick recovery once the fracture has healed (about 4-6 months).

After about 4-5 weeks, bone healing starts to appear on x-rays and fills in the "crack" slowly over the next few months. In the beginning phases, the fracture can still be seen after hardware placement. It can take a while to see changes on the x-ray, as the early developing bone healing has low mineralization and does not appear on x-rays.

Fractures heal by forming a "glue" or callus. Essentially, a sticky glob of blood, called hematoma, is transformed over time into cartilage-like immature bone, and then mineralized and turned into mature, strong bone. Once this process has been completed, the bone is healed, without any scar in the bone tissue itself.

Bone is one of the few tissues in the body that can heal without a scar, thanks to its remodeling cells calls osteoblasts and osteoclasts. They are like workers in a factory, producing and changing the bone as the body needs.