Fig. 5

a Lateral intraoperative X-ray of 74 year old woman who presented a conminuted supraintercondylear fracture of the humerus, fixed with two plates and a 6′5 mm thick and 60 mm long screw with a washer and a cerclage for the olecranon osteotomy. The screw is not long enough to grip the cortical of the ulna canal diaphysis. b Same case; X-ray 5 weeks after the surgery with acute failure of the osteosynthesis of the olecranon osteotomy. In this case, we waited 4 more weeks until the osteotomy consolidation and then we removed the screw and cerclage. c Lateral X-ray of a 68 year old man with a supraintercondylear fracture treated with two plates in the humerus and a 4′5 mm thick and 42 mm long screw and a cerclage for the olecranon osteotomy. In this case an acute loss of reduction of the fixation of the osteotomy appeared, with a gap of more than 2 mm. The screw is not long neither thick enough to grip the cortical of the ulna canal diaphysis and provide enough stability