Madelung's deformity is rare. Treatment often consists in radial or ulnar osteotomy, Vickers’ ligament resection or ulnar epiphysiodesis. The present multicenter retrospective study reports clinical and radiographic results in various surgeries. The study hypothesis was that early surgery improves outcome.

Files were analyzed for 36 children (47 wrists) operated on between 1998 and 2015. Mean age at diagnosis was 12 years (range, 6–15 years). Mean follow-up was 7.2 years (range, 2–17.4 years). Two age groups were distinguished: 6–11 and 12–17 years. Endpoints were esthetic, functional (Mayo Wrist Score: MWS) and radiographic [lunate fossa angle (LFA), radial height (RH), lunatum cover rate (LCR), ulnar head translation (UHT), lunatum ascension (LA)]. Techniques mainly comprised distal radius osteotomy (DRO) with ulnar shortening osteotomy (USO), and Vickers’ ligament resection (VR), either isolated or associated to osteotomy.

Age at surgery guided choice of technique, but did not impact results. VR gave better functional results when performed in young children; it was mainly performed in the 6–11 years age group, providing very satisfactory results (7 out of 8 wrists) with excellent function (7 out of 8), without improving radiographic parameters; in the 12–17 years age group, even when esthetic results were excellent, functional results were only good-to-acceptable (3 out of 5 wrists) and 1 result was poor. DRO+USO was mainly performed in the 12–17 years age group, with very satisfactory or satisfactory results (8 out of 10 wrists) and excellent function (6 out of 10). DRO+USO appeared to be an option of choice, significantly improving radiographic parameters and correcting the deformity (24.5° improvement in LFA (p=0.0033) and 36.2% improvement in LCR (p=0.0103)). DRO+USO+VR was mainly implemented in the 12–17 years age group, with very satisfactory results (3 out of 4 wrists) and excellent-to-good MWS in most cases (3 out of 4), but without significant radiographic improvement.

Esthetic and functional results were comparable regardless of age, except for VR, which gave better functional results in the 6–11 years age group, but without significant difference.

The present study showed that, regardless of children's age, surgery provided esthetic, functional and radiographic benefit, although no decision-tree could be drawn up.

IV.