ARTHROSCOPY OF THE ELBOW: THE FIRST EXPERIENCE IN LITHUANIA

For the first time, M.S. Burman de­scribed elbow arthroscopy in 1931, but only in late 1980s scientific reports started to appear. New operative tech­niques and indications for the elbow arthroscopy were developed during the last decade. In Lithuania, the first elbow arthroscopy was performed on adhesions. The majority of patients had limitation of ex­tension while one third of patients had flexion limitation. The average duration of the elbow arthroscopy was one hour and forty minutes (min-max=40-180 min). The average stay at the hospital after el­bow arthroscopy was 3.3 days. All opera­tions were performed with brachial plexus anaesthesia. For the first 16 elbow arthroscopies the lateral decubitus posi­tion for the patient was used, and for the other 9 cases we applied modified supine position of the patient. In all cases, there were no nerves or vascular complica­tions. In conclusion, the arthroscopic el­bow surgery is non-traumatic procedure with a short postoperative recovery.