Conservative Treatment of Scaphoid Nonunion in Children - A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Scaphoid nonunion is an infrequent finding in children. In the absence of treatment guidelines, both surgical and nonsurgical treatments are valid options. We present the case of a 13-year-old boy with an established nonunion of the scaphoid that healed after six months of immobilisation. Subtle bone bridging was detected on a Computed Tomography (CT) scan after 3.5 months, requiring further casting. CT is a valuable tool to detect early callus formation; we advocate its use before abandoning nonsurgical treatment in cases of scaphoid nonunion in children.