We aimed to study the cross-sectional ossification pattern of the elbow, the sequence, and the time in Korean children.

The radiographs of the elbow joint of 1418 children from newborn to age of 16 years taken from January 1993 to February 1999 were reviewed. The presence of 6 secondary ossification centers were recorded with all-or-none approach, and sex and chronologic age were also recorded. We took the point of 50% positive ossification as the reference mean for comparison, and found the point by cubic spline method. X2 test was done to compare the ossification time between boys and girls and injured elbow against normal elbow.

The boys had following sequential development of ossification centers; capitulum, radial head, medial epicondyle, olecranon, trochlea, lateral epicondyle at age of 1, 6.7, 7.3, 10.8, 11.2, and 13 years, respectively; and the girls, capitulum, medial epicondyle, radial head, olecranon, trochlea, lateral epicondyle, at age of 1, 4.3, 4.3, 9.5, 9.5, and 10 years, respectively. Appearance of ossification centers except capitulum was delayed approximately for 2 years in boys as compared with that in girls (p<0.05) . There was no difference between injured and normal elbows (p>0.05).

The authors reported the patterns for the development of secondary ossification centers of Korean children using the cross-sectional study.