Article
Traumatic Distal Humeral Hematomas: A Report of 2 Cases
Am J Orthop. 2009 September;38(9):470-474
Author and Disclosure Information
Matthew J. Snyder, MD, B. Matthew Hicks, MD, and Michael Thieken, MD
Dr. Snyder is Chief Resident, and Dr. Hicks is Program Director, Fort Wayne Medical Education Program, Orthopaedic Surgery Residency, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Dr. Thieken is Sports Medicine and Arthoscopy Fellow, New Mexico Orthopaedics, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Abstract not available. Introduction provided instead.
Muscle injury, contusions, and hematomas are frequent injuries incurred during sports.1-4 They regularly lead to limitation in activity that oftentimes can be season-long. Hematomas in the quadriceps,5-13 illiopsoas,14 and gastrocnemius musculatures15,16 have been well described. Hematomas can be secondary to
trauma and can occur spontaneously. Many, but not all, of the patients who report with spontaneous, and even traumatic, hematomas that lead to surgical intervention may have an underlying bleeding or clotting disorder (genetic or iatrogenic).
In this report of 2 isolated cases, we describe the presentation and course of 2 blunt traumatic distal humeral perimuscular and intramuscular hematomas in healthy, adolescent football players. In-depth hematologic workup for bleeding disorders or dyscrasias was not performed as neither player had a personal or family history of prior hematomas or abnormal bleeding disorders upon presentation.
The literature suggests that most muscle injuries are self-limited and improve with conservative treatment. No case reports or studies (to our knowledge) in our literature review have reported such limitations in elbow function and brisk improvement following surgical intervention.