Madelung's deformity. A new therapeutic approach

Symptomatic Madelung's disease does not respond to conservative treatment and the objectives of surgical treatment are essentially to obtain a congruent and correctly oriented radio-carpal joint line in order to preserve maximal and painless range of joint movement. The various surgical treatment modalities proposed to date have been essentially cosmetic and are not sufficient to achieve these objectives. The authors propose a new therapeutic approach to this deformity: radiolunate and inferior radio-ulnar arthrodesis with Kapandji's technique associated with radio-carpal reorientation osteotomy, as required. The results obtained in the first four cases are evaluated with a clinical follow-up of eighteen months to five years.